


hey there, george

by m3ll0h5



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Confessions, Crushes, Fluff and Angst, Internal Conflict, Lust, M/M, POV Alternating, Pining, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 51,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28902267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3ll0h5/pseuds/m3ll0h5
Summary: Dream and George always had a friendly flirting dynamic during their interactions, but what happens when George starts growing closer with others and further from Dream? What happens when Dream starts to ignore his calls and texts?
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 63





	1. declined

**Author's Note:**

> Any unknown names of individuals IRL will be filled in here with fake names! I.E. "Drista" is Genevive, this isn't her real name!

"Hey there Delilah, what's it like in New York City, I'm a thousand miles away But girl, tonight you look so pretty, yes you do," Dream hummed to himself as he fidgeted on his computer. 

"Awe, Dream, you look pretty too!" Sapnap teased, the remark making Dream roll his eyes. 

"Shut up," Dream said as he fell into a pool of lava in Minecraft. 

"Fuck!" Dream yelled as he pounded his hands onto his desk, startling Patches who lied asleep on Dream's bed. Sapnap giggled as he watched the slightly delayed Discord screen showing Dream's character dying. 

"You suck," Sapnap laughed, making Dream more aggravated. 

"Fuck off, Sapnap. You can't get a sub forty run," Dream remarked, making Sapnap laugh. 

"You're aggro," Dream rolled his eyes at Sapnap's comment. 

"I'm going to come to your room and beat your ass" Dream's face was flushed red from anger, he had a really good run but Sapnap's comments distracted him. 

"Aww, George isn't here to calm you down, how sad for you." There might as well have been steam coming out of Dream's ears as he argued back and forth with Sapnap. Dream was three seconds away from walking to Sapnap's room and backhanding him before George's voice interrupted his rage. 

"What the hell is going on?" George asked, making the two stop. Sapnap rolled his eyes and whispered a quiet "oh god," before Dream sighed. 

"Sapnap's being a dick," Dream remarked as he loaded in another world to speedrun. Sapnap had muted his microphone, but Dream could hear his loud laughter echoing throughout the house. Sapnap and Dream had rented a house together for the previous few months, and the bickering had started getting more frequent as time passed. Nothing bad, but they bickered like brothers. 

"What happened," George questioned, clearly distracted. Dream rolled his eyes, the sassy comments from Sapnap and distracted questions from George aggravated him even more. He quit his game and closed Minecraft, moving his cursor to the 'End Call' button on Discord. 

"I've gotta go," Dream said sighing. 

"Wait-" He heard George start before he clicked the button and turned off his PC. He leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. He hadn't been streaming recently but had been speedrunning in his merch Discord server to his fans. He wasn't streaming on Discord, but he had been speedrunning in his free time to Sapnap and George. 

The faint light emitting from his ceiling fan fell onto his desk, illuminating the black keyboard next to him. His heart was racing from the anger he felt towards his game, and also towards his friends. Minutes of silence passed before he heard a faint knock on his bedroom door. 

"Dream?" Sapnap whispered through the closed door. Dream sighed and let him in as he tidied his desk from the trash that had accumulated over the past few days. 

"I'm sorry," Sapnap said softly as Dream cleaned. Dream sighed and laughed. His anger had already subsided into hunger. 

"Sapnap, it's ok. I was just tired of getting bad runs. And I'm starving." Dream remarked as he pet Patches head. His friend laughed and sat at Dream's desk, leaning back into his chair. 

"You know, George was asking about you," Sapnap said piquing Dream's interest. 

"Oh yeah, what about?" He tried to question casually but failed at the heightened voice that emitted from his chest. 

"He's worried about you, you never talk to us anymore," Dream furrowed his brows and looked to his friend, who was fidgeting with his keyboard. 

"I live with you," he questioned, confused at the previous statement. 

"No, I mean you never talk to _us,_ you talk to all of us in calls but that's only when someone is streaming, you don't join mine and George's TS calls after hours anymore," Dream pondered over his words. He hadn't been very active on any social media recently either, his most recent tweet was over four days ago. Sapnap was right, he couldn't remember the last time he spoke to George while he wasn't streaming. Or spoke to George _alone._

"I mean, I talk to you both every day. I don't see why he's concerned," Dream snipped. George had been rather distracted lately, which irritated Dream that George was complaining about his absence. 

"Did something happen between you two? You're rather short towards him," Sapnap questioned. Dream scoffed. 

"Nothing happened, I just don't see why he gets to be concerned with my absence when he's been distracted lately too. He's never online and when he is he chooses to talk to Karl and Quackity rather than us, which is fine, but he's the one who chooses who he talks to. It's neither of our problems that he doesn't talk to us," Sapnap furrowed his brows at Dream's words. They were harsh, but Dream meant everything he had said. Sapnap said nothing. 

"I'm done talking about this," The two left shortly after to get food, the awkward tension rising as time passed. 

Dream hummed to the beat of 'Hey There Delilah' in the car as he drove to a poor-quality fast food place with Sapnap in his passenger seat. Dream's head was occupied by the conversation he and Sapnap had earlier that evening, the words of George ringing in his ears as he merged lanes on the street. 

"Dream?" Sapnap questioned, breaking the silence in the car, pulling Dream from his thoughts. "Yes?" 

"You missed the turn," 

"Oh," Dream sighed. "Sorry, I'm distracted." He immediately turned onto the next street in an attempt to fix his mistakes.

"Seriously, Dream, what's going on? Did something happen between you and George?" Sapnap reignited Dream's thoughts, bringing him back to the sore subject of George. He sighed as he turned into the McDonald's parking lot. 

"I don't know, I love Karl and Quackity, don't get me wrong, but I just feel like George has been spending a lot of time with them. Which is fine, I don't care, but it's hypocritical of him to spend all of his time awake with them and then complain that we've been distant," He yawned as he pulled into the- rather long- drive through line. 

"I get it," Sapnap agreed, easing Dream. "But, you have been _choosing_ to not join. You're always welcome in their streams, you know." 

Dream thought about his friend's words as he stared at the glowing sign displaying food items. He got the same thing every time, so he didn't know why he was looking at it like he was going to order something else. Probably to ignore the truth in Sapnap's words. 

"Being welcome to join and being invited are two different things," He remarked before he pulled to the order station, shifting the focus to ordering. He ordered his usual and the car resumed its loud silence before they pulled again to the window. He was rather un-talkative with the cashier, who was blatantly flirting with him, and continued his silence until they arrived back home. 

Dream yawned again as he took his food into his room, leaving Sapnap alone in the kitchen. Sapnap had hoped to join him and watch TV together, but he took the hint that Dream wanted to be alone. 

Dream sat on his bed and pet his cat, who was now purring and sniffing his food. He smiled and took a drink of his Sprite, his eyes fluttering shut slightly. 

The bright light from his phone illuminated his face and pierced his eyes, the notifications rolled in and made him anxious. He noticed three texts from George had been sitting on his phone, not realizing he hadn't checked his phone since he got off their call. He didn't open the texts but saw enough question marks and long enough messages to know he didn't want to deal with it then. He received a notification from twitch, 

_Sapnap is live! Sapnap went live!_

He considered ignoring the notification but joined despite his brain begging him to go to sleep. It was only eleven pm for him, but he had gotten his sleeping schedule back in order after he stopped talking to George every night. They had aligned their sleep schedules so that they could always be available to talk when the other needed it, but they hadn't spoken late at night for over two weeks. Sapnap's Minecraft character appeared on Dream's screen, resulting in the chat freaking out. The three of them never understood why Sapnap's character made their fans go crazy, but it did nonetheless. 

Sapnap's character stood still while he read off donations, thanking people for their kind gestures. A voice caught Dream by surprise, pulling him from his focus on the chat flying by. 

"Chat's asking where Dream is. Where is Dream, Sapnap?" George's British accent filled the empty silence in Dream's room. He turned down his phone volume, not wanting Sapnap to know he was watching the stream but not joining. 

"He's downstairs. I think he's asleep," Sapnap replied, making George go silent for a few seconds. "But, we don't-" George paused. " _He_ doesn't go to sleep for another couple hours, I thought?" George questioned, reminding Dream of their aligned sleep schedule that Dream had messed up. 

"I don't know, you can call him," Sapnap suggested. Dream smiled slightly at the suggestion. He knew he wouldn't receive the call because his discord was closed on his computer. "He's not on Discord, it says offline," Sapnap said, and George didn't respond. Dream was soon met by the black notification of a phone call swiping across his screen, startling him. He knew he didn't want to answer, but his ringer was on full volume. The alarm rang throughout the house, he knew Sapnap could hear his ringer, even if the stream couldn't. He panicked and declined the call, the alarm stops. 

George audibly gasped, shocked that Dream declined the call. 

"He- He declined my call?" George questioned, making Sapnap cough uncomfortably. "He's probably not feeling well, don't stress about it." He tried to play off Dream's panicked mistake, but it was too late. The chat was already flooded with messages speculating that Dream and George were fighting. Soon tweets were flooding Dream's homepage with theories about why he had declined the call, his recent absence from streams wasn't helping his case. Maybe they were right, maybe Dream _was_ mad at George, and even he didn't realize. 

Dream closed Sapnap's stream and drowned himself in his thoughts. _Maybe he had been mad at George and hadn't even noticed himself._ He left earlier right when George joined their call, he wasn't responding to his messages, hadn't joined any of his recent streams and he just now declined his call without a second thought. 

He plugged in his phone and set it on his nightstand. He could hear the notifications coming in even with the ringer turned off. The constant vibration of his phone kept him awake, and he turned around to turn his phone on do not disturb, when he was met with another message from George. It had only been ten minutes since he closed Sapnap's stream, so he knew George messaged him while on Sapnap's stream. 

**George:** did i do something? why are you ignoring me?

The preview of the text had ended with three dots, meaning George had sent a long enough text to have to open to read the entire thing. Dream decided against having this conversation and shut off his phone, slowly drifting to sleep as he listened to his friends laughing upstairs without him. 

-

Dream woke the next morning at eight to Patches scratching at his door. He slowly woke up and approached the kitchen where he prepared Patches' breakfast. The cat meowed at her owner, rubbing against his leg from time to time. After feeding Patches, Dream was alone. Sapnap didn't usually wake up until one or two, leaving Dream with nothing to do for at least another four hours. He picked up his landline, not wanting to open his notification-filled phone just yet, and dialed his sister's number. After a few rings, she picked up with a welcoming 'hi!'.

"Good morning, would you be interested in going to Disney with me today?" Dream asked his sister, who squealed in response. He laughed and hung up the phone to call his mom and make sure his spontaneous plans were allowed. She agreed and Dream said he would be by his mom's in an hour to pick Gen up. Gen was known to the internet as 'Drista', but he referred to her as Gen, short for Genevive, so that no fans would overhear him calling her Drista and connect the dots. 

He hung up the phone with his mom and left to his room, deciding again against checking his notifications. He swiped past them and onto Spotify, where he connected his phone to his Beats Pill and played his music while he showered. 

Steam coated the bathroom mirror as Dream played 'Hey There Delilah' for the third time that morning, singing the lyrics along with it. He noticed his increase in product usage and a decline in the amount of product and made a mental note to stop at Target on his way home to pick up shampoo and conditioner. He ran his fingers through his dripping hair after he got out of the shower. He had forgotten to get a haircut recently, and his hair was long enough to put into a bun now. He groaned as he pulled his dirty blonde hair into a hair-tie, reluctantly pulling it into a bun on the back of his head. He hated his hair long, but he didn't have the time to get it cut before his brother-sister date later that day. 

He dressed in black jeans and a sage crewneck, sticking with his central green theme, and pulled out a pair of Vans a fan had sent to him in his PO box. He hated it, but the fans had much better shoe choices than he did. It was a basic pair of black Old-Skools, but they were undeniably better than his run-down shoes sitting on his closet floor. 

He ran upstairs to check if Sapnap was awake, and when he wasn't he decided to text him instead of waking him up. He sent Sapnap a short and efficient text letting him know where he was and when he'd be back, which was undecided. He considered packing food to save money but decided against it to save the hassle of carrying around a bag. He grabbed his phone, keys, and wallet and left the house. He hadn't checked his messages from George and thought he should before he went to Disney all day. But, as he went to open the text he got a facetime from his sister asking where he was. He forgot about George's texts and answered his call before he drove. 

His sister was overjoyed at his sudden plans for Disney. She was giggling when Dream arrived at the house, and she hopped in his passenger seat and hummed along to his music. Dream loved his sister, but in all honesty, he suggested he suggested this plan to distract himself from the internet drama he had created. 

They spent all day running around Magic Kingdom and Epcot before they were drained and decided to leave. Dream had managed to stay off of social media the whole day before they were stood in line at the Dole Whip stand after Gen had begged him for a Pineapple whip before they left. He opened his Twitter feed to messages and mentions of George's last tweet on his alt account, piquing Dream's interest. He searched for George's username and clicked on the animated profile picture of George's 'noot' face. His recent tweet made him laugh. 

**George** _@GeorgeNootFound:_ guys i think dream and sapnap fell asleep together last night thats why they're ignoring me :[  
2.7K REPLIES / 13.1K RTS / 159K LIKES

Dream giggled at the tweet before he scrolled down and was met with Quackity's response. 

**quackity4k** _@quackity4k:_ its ok gog you have us

**George** _@GeorgeNootFound:_ you guys are better anyway :]

Dream frowned and turned off his phone. One tweet had ruined his mood with his sister. Gen soon returned with an overflowing cup of Dole Whip and snapped Dream out of his mood. 

"Clay? What's wrong?" Gen asked, pulling Dream from his thoughts. He appreciated that some people in his life called him Clay, it reminded him he wasn't just 'Dream', but that he was a person with a life of his own. "Is that thing with George bothering you?" Gen asked, making Dream's head snap down to his sister, who was happily eating her ice cream. 

"How do you even know about that?" He asked, confused. 

"Oh come on, it's been all over my for you page on TikTok, you guys basically broke up on stream. And don't think I haven't noticed you've not been talking about him all day," She replied, making Dream sigh. 

"Do I really talk about him that much?" Gen laughed and shook her head, "Well, yes, but that's not what I meant. He makes you happy, so does Sapnap, I can tell. And clearly, something happened because you haven't been talking about him today. And you've been off your phone," Dream sighed at his sister's words, he had been off all day. I mean, he did plan this trip to get his mind off of his drama. 

"I'm sorry, I wanted this day to be about us spending time together." Dream confessed. Gen giggled. "I'm not blind, I knew that you planned this trip because you wanted to avoid George and Sapnap. But I was in the mood for Space Mountain and Dole Whip, so it was a win-win." Gen laughed, making Dream flush pink. His sister was smarter than he thought she was. 

"You should talk to him, though, he seems worried," Gen said as they approached the exit gates of the park. She threw her empty cup away in the trashcan before they got on the tram back to the parking structure. Dream nodded but said nothing. He needed to stop avoiding George, no matter how much it hurt his feelings how little he felt wanted. 

-

Dream dropped Gen off at home and his mom had bought him shampoo and conditioner while they were at Disney, meaning he didn't need to stop at another store before home. He didn't feel like making pasta for the third time this week so he called Sapnap to see if he wanted to go out for dinner. The phone rang on the car Bluetooth twice before he picked up, greeting Dream with a scream. 

"Jesus, Sapnap," Dream laughed, making Sapnap giggle as well. 

"Well you're already happier today than you were yesterday, that's nice," Sapnap remarked, making Dream smile. "Get dressed, let's go get food." Dream demanded, making Sapnap laugh in excitement. Disney was exactly what he needed to refresh. 

The two unlocked the front door laughing from their food coma and conversation in the car on the way back from the sushi restaurant. Dream clutched his stomach in pain from how much food he ate and he sat on the couch beside Sapnap, who was also groaning. 

"Come on, you have to play at least one game," Sapnap demanded, making Dream groan. "I knew you couldn't eat it with the wasabi, you were too pussy," Sapnap laughed. 

"Ugh, fine. Go start it, I'm gonna change my clothes and I'll be on in a minute," Dream said, making Sapnap rush upstairs and start his PC in excitement. Dream lost a bet and had to play with Sapap in a game of Fortnite. 

Dream changed his stiff jeans into black sweatpants and grabbed a bottle of water before putting on his headset and starting Fortnite. 

"Oh, fuck," Dream said as he joined Sapnap's call on TeamSpeak. "What?" Sapnap asked, confused at Dream's sudden language. 

"I never responded to George, I have like six unopened messages from him," Dream confessed, making Sapnap laugh. "I haven't spoken to him today either, I was busy working on my last bit of schoolwork. He's probably worried," Dream scoffed at Sapnap's last comment. 

"Yeah right, or he's in a TS with Karl and Quackity not giving a single shit," Dream laughed. "Correction, they use Discord," Sapnap's comment made Dream wheeze. 

"Ugh, I don't even want to respond," Dream groaned, making Sapnap's laughter stop. "Are you mad at him? Like actually?" Sapnap questioned, making Dream think again. Was he?

"No," Dream lied. "I'm not mad, it's just like what I said last night, I think he's being hypocritical," Dream said, which was only half true. 

"Fair, now join my invite. And answer him, at least a half-assed response," Sapnap's words made Dream groan. He joined the party and opened his phone. He checked all of his other notifications before reluctantly clicking on George's text stream, which was now seven texts deep. 

**George:** dream? why'd you leave the ts?

**George:** why are you tired so early? we don't go to bed for another four hours usually :[

**George:** did you decline my call?

**George:** are you ok? 

**George:** did i do something? why are you ignoring me? i don't understand, you've been declining my calls, not joining the ts after streams, not joining streams at all, blatantly ignoring me in calls and now you decline my call live on stream? what did i do?

**George:** dream, please answer

**George:** please tell me what i did wrong, im worried

Dream sighed at the stream of texts that came through, he especially frowned at the fact that he didn't have a real reason why he'd been ignoring him. He was simply just sick of George ignoring him for Karl and Quackity. Dream set his phone on his desk and put his hands to the side of his head. 

**You:** sapnap and i are in ts if you'd like to join

Dream shut off his phone and resumed the game with Sapnap, laughing at the stupid dance his character was doing. Dream wheezed loudly as he heard a robot voice in his ear. 

_"User joined your channel"_

Dream stared at the sidebar at George's name popping on screen. 

"Hello, Gog," Sapnap said, breaking the silence. "Hello," George said, sounding very suspicious of Dream. 

"Hi, Dream," George said, making Dream's face fall flat. "Hello, George," Dream said emotionlessly, making George scoff. 

"Why have you both been declining my calls and ignoring my texts, hmm? You guys leaving me," George asked with a slight laugh in his voice. "Well, Dream was at Disney all day with Gen and I was doing schoolwork, so no," Sapnap replied. "Oh," was all George said, his voice fell quiet and almost sad. 

"But, we do have a bone to pick with you," Sapnap said, shifting the tone of the conversation. "Oh yeah?" George questioned, his voice still low. 

"Yeah, why the hell have you been ditching us for Karl and Quackity lately? We're never invited to the streams, it honestly feels like the we have sex gang is leaving me and Dream," Sapnap said as he killed another player in their game. Dream had been distracted with the game thus far, that is until George replied. 

"That's bullshit, you _both_ are always invited to the streams, some of you just don't join," George remarked, and Dream could almost feel the side-eye he was getting from George, although he was thousands of miles away. 

"Being welcome to join and being invited are different things, George," Sapnap said, repeating the very words Dream had said the night before. Dream's heart glowed at Sapnap defending him, even if it sounded like he was defending the both of them. 

"That's no reason to blatantly ignore your best friend. Dream's been ignoring me for three fucking weeks! I barely remember what his fucking voice sounds like, but he has the time to go to Disney all day with _some girl?_ " George exploded, leaving the call silent. Dream shifted in his chair. George seemed highly bothered by the fact that he was with his sister, and the fact that he called her 'some girl' threw Dream off. 

"Who? Genevive? That's my fucking sister you dickhead. And yeah, I was at Disney with my sister to get my mind off the fact that my best friend has been leaving me for his other friends! Did you think about that, George?" Dream exploded but softened his tone. 

"Did you ever consider how I would feel? How would you feel if I started hanging out with Punz and Sapnap exclusively and left you out? Hm? Or if I had a stream planned every other night with them and said to you 'oh, you can join' but didn't blatantly invite you? Would you still join then?" Dream questioned but received no answer. 

"I mean, seriously, George. I love you, but I have feelings too. I've felt like shit the last couple of weeks because you- and Sapnap too- have been prioritizing them over me. I didn't immediately mess up our sleeping schedule, I actually waited by my computer _every. single. night._ for you to call me. I waited for hours for you to call me. But instead, I look in discord and see that you're in a Discord call with Quackity and Karl for the third night in a row, during the time when we usually called. I didn't care the first week of it happening, but then I decided one night to go to sleep early and see if you called me while I was asleep. And you never did, you never fucking called. So I took it as a sign I needed to start prioritizing people that actually cared for my presence," Dream said, he was being over-dramatic but he didn't care. He had these feelings building up for weeks, and they were all being let out, unfortunately, in front of Sapnap. 

"Of course I value you, Dream," George said quietly. 

"Well it doesn't feel that way, so I stopped waiting for you. And it took you two more weeks to notice. And now I'm the bad guy?" Dream questioned, his voice rising again. 

"Yeah, George, I'm the bad guy for not replying to your texts right away. And for going to sleep at eleven. I'm sorry." Dream said before he left the call, Sapnap and George being met with the same robotic voice telling them Dream had left the call. 

Dream was fuming, his face was flushed red and he was in pain from the amount of food he'd eaten for dinner. He could hear the vibrations of Sapnap's voice upstairs taking to George, but he was too far to make out words. He wanted to know what he was saying, but he also knew he needed to sleep before he did anything he regretted. 

He had taken a picture of his outfit earlier in the bathroom at Disney, he was proud of his improved style. He cropped his hand from the picture and posted it on his alt Twitter account, 

**dream** _@dreamwastaken:_ thanks guys for the shoes, they did me well :D  
5.4k REPLIES / 6.7K RTS / 259K LIKES

And he tagged the fan who bought him the shoes. Within seconds his replies were filled with compliments and acknowledgments of his outfit. "DREAMS OUTFIT" was trending within minutes of his post and he laughed, his fans bringing him happiness to ease his nerves. 

He received a text from Sapnap before he shut off his phone,

**Nick:** george wants to talk to you, alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! i'm not even sure if i like this all that much, i just wrote what came to mind. lemme know if you liked it! :D


	2. only for you

The groan Dream lets out is loud enough to wake Patches from her slumber. There are goosebumps coating his arms from the cold temperature in the house, making him curl in a ball under his covers. 

_I do not want to talk to George._

He walks from his room to the kitchen, Patches following close behind. The memories from George and Dream's conversation flood back into his mind as he opens a can of food for Patches. He wasn't sure how much of the words he said he regretted, he didn't know if he regretted any of it at all. It was all true, and George didn't even say anything back. He thought about how Sapnap defended him and even made it seem like it were both of them that was feeling this way, but George still couldn't admit that anything was wrong. 

He heard a loud bang and a grunt from upstairs, meaning Sapnap was awake. Surprisingly, considering it was eight am. Dream quickly ran up the stairs and knocked on Sapnap's door, and Sapnap said a quick, "come in" before Dream opened the door. 

"What the hell was that?" Dream asked concerned, Sapnap sat in his computer chair visibly frustrated. "Nothing, I dropped my water bottle," Sapnap replied, his hair looking rather fluffy and more messed up than normal. Dream sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, avoiding eye contact with his friend. 

"What am I supposed to do about George?" Dream asked, desperation settling in his throat. If the conversation last night couldn't get through to him, he wasn't sure what would. "Well, I could tell you what he told me last night after you left," his voice trailed, piquing Dream's interest. 

"But that would make me a snitch." Dream's shoulders fell, Sapnap was teasing him with the answer to his problems. "So, you can't tell him you know," Dream's eyes met Sapnap's, which were pinched together from the smile spread across his face. Dream nodded and swore to not bring it up, so Sapnap confessed. He leaned back in his chair and turned on his PC, beginning his long story of last night's events. 

"He was hurt by what you said, first of all" he began, Dream's shoulder's falling and rising with every breath. He tried to keep his breathing steady, but the thought of his words directly hurting George didn't sit well with him. "I tried to tell him that I understood you and where you were coming from. He didn't understand why you were so mad that he had left you, he said that you were always welcome to join and chose not to," Sapnap paused. 

"I repeated what you said if the roles were reversed, and he still didn't get it. He was furious, I've never seen George this hurt or mad in my entire life, it was a little scary." Dream's eyebrows raised, he didn't know his words affected George this much. 

"But, sorry, I told him you're more sensitive than he is. That made him cool off, and he started speaking rather than yelling. He said he wanted to talk to you, to fix things." his gaze trailed to the door, looking down the hall at Patches eavesdropping in on their conversation. 

"You know, you guys have a really special friendship. I didn't tell him this, and I probably shouldn't be telling you, but I was talking to Karl and Alex after my stream the other night and they were saying how they noticed you guys were distancing and it scared them, it scared me too. Seeing you guys fight is like seeing your mom and dad fight," Sapnap said, Dream laughed at the comparison and rolled his eyes. 

"No, I'm serious. They're concerned about you guys too, there's always weird tension. At first, when we felt it we thought it was just because you haven't streamed in a while and were nervous to be back on stream. But then it happened offline too a few times, you guys just don't act the same." Dream thought about Sapnap's words. It made him warm to think about Karl and Alex being concerned for them as well, but what they were saying was right. There _was_ a weird tension between them. It had been there for roughly two months, it felt like one of them was hiding something, but neither of them was. Or maybe both were. 

Dream sighed as his head fell into his hands. "You're right. I've felt it too. I just don't get it, it's not even Karl and Quackity, it's something else. It all got weird a couple of months ago. I can fake it on stream but off stream, there's no point." Sapnap chuckled, making Dream shoot him a glance. 

"No no, I'm not laughing at you. George said something last night that was really funny, I was just remembering how much I made fun of him for it," Sapnap laughed, his eyes shutting from laugher. Dream loved when he did that, he didn't see Sapnap laugh this hard that often, his giggles were always contagious. 

"What did he say, maybe if I'm laughing on call it'll be less awkward," Dream pleaded, Sapnap shook his head. "I don't think you'll think it's funny," He warned, but Dream persisted. "After you posted that picture of your outfit, he like stopped mid-sentence and asked if I saw what you posted, I said no because I don't have your post notifications on," Dream scoffed, "dick," Sapnap giggled. 

"He was all 'oh did you see what Dream posted?' and I said no. He sent it to me and I didn't understand why his breath suddenly stopped. He was like, scared of something," Dream was utterly confused, but asked Sapnap to continue, he was barely able to finish the sentence between laughter. 

"Anyway, he said you looked _good_ and I asked him what about it. He wouldn't tell me, but he had his cam on TS so I made fun of him. The mother fucker was bright red, it was hilarious. I've never seen George so flustered in my life," Sapnap laughed, but Dream just stared. Why was George so flustered at the picture he posted? For the first time in a long time Dream was insecure, he couldn't wrap his head around why George didn't like his photo. 

"Wow, George didn't like my outfit, that's sad." Dream said, trying to cover his tracks. "Oh god, don't get all insecure. The fucker wears hoodies and sweatpants ninety-five percent of his life, he'll get over it," Sapnap said as he swiveled his chair to face the screen, his hands clicking keys as he opened Minecraft. Dream said he was off to speak to George and left Sapnap to play by himself. 

Dream wandered downstairs and into his room and fell onto his bed. He pulled out his phone and opened iMessage to text George. His thumbs danced as he contemplated what to say, not even knowing if George was awake. It was only one in the afternoon for him, but he knew how messed up his sleep schedule was. 

**To George:** Are you awake?

Not even ten seconds passed before George was calling Dream, FaceTiming him actually. Dream sat up in his bed and answered the call, facing the camera away from him. After a few seconds of connection, George's pale face filled his screen, the sudden call making him flustered. 

"What's wrong?" George asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Dream giggled, "Nothing," he laughed, George rolled his eyes. "You scared me," George laughed slightly, Dream was confused. "Why would something be wrong?" He asked as he walked to his desk and flopped into his chair, the seat squeaking underneath him. 

"I don't know, you haven't talked to me lately and I figured after last night if you were texting me something was wrong," George trailed, making Dream's heart sink. George knew if Dream texted him out of the blue like this that he might be having a serious issue. Dream sighed. 

"Oh, no. I just wanted to talk to you about last night, actually." Dream began, George propped his phone to face him on his desk as he fidgeted with the black keys of his keyboard. "Oh," Was all George said. Dream didn't know how to begin, he only knew he was sorry. 

"I'm sorry, I freaked out a-and," Dream stuttered, he felt a lump grow in the back of his throat when he looked to George, who had his head down looking to his lap. "Dream, I understand. Sapnap helped me understand what you meant, I'm sorry," George confessed, his voice soft and low. His lips curved into a smile and he looked back to the phone. 

"He also reminded me how much more sensitive you are than me," George grinned, the slight rose of his cheeks was accentuated by the red sweatshirt he was wearing. Dream rolled his eyes, which George couldn't see. 

"Yeah, ok, whatever. But we do need to talk about this and find a middle ground." Dream suggested. George leaned back in his chair and reached his arms above his head. His sweatshirt rode up a little bit above the waistband of his sweatpants, his pale torso being exposed. Dream found himself staring at the bit of skin that was shown below the hem of his sweater. Dream had never seen any of George that he didn't show to the camera. It's not like they had met in real life, but George always kept his camera on even after streaming. 

"Okay," George exhaled a breath he was holding, his arms fell to his side again and his sweater fell back down. Dream caught his gaze falling, he looked away quickly even though George couldn't see his face. He was thankful he couldn't see his face, he was glowing red. "Why do you never have your camera on with me," George questioned, Dream laughed and looked away from George's face on his phone screen. 

"I don't have my camera on for anyone," He remarked, George rolled his eyes. "Plus, you didn't like my outfit yesterday. Why would I give you the allowance to make fun of my outfit again? George flushed pink and looked away from his phone camera. "I didn't say that, did Sapnap tell you I said it was bad?" George asked, his British accent ringing in Dream's ears. 

"Yeah, he did," Dream said, George laughed. "That is very far from what I actually said," George confessed, avoiding eye contact by typing nonsense on his keyboard. "Oh, yeah? What did you say then?" Dream asked, leaning closer to his phone. He could hear George rustling and his breath hitching in his throat. 

_"I said you looked good,"_

Hearing the words leave George's mouth made Dream's breath catch in his throat, the call fell silent. Dream's eyebrows raised in satisfaction. 

_That's exactly what Sapnap said he said, but he wanted to hear George say it._

"Oh," Dream said casually. "Oh? That's it? No thank you?" George questioned, he was baffled at Dream's simple response. Dream wheezed at George's confused voice. "Thank you, George." Dream replied, making George roll his eyes and fold his arms. 

"You look good in red," Dream said lowly. George's face flushed red again, the red hoodie matching the shade of his face. Dream smiled, George was so easy. 

"T-thank you," George stuttered. Dream sat silently. He realized the tension was gone. The inevitable tension that seemed to linger during all of their interactions was gone. It was normal, normal lighthearted flirting and banter. Or was it normal? 

-

Dream's chest bubbled with laughter at his friend's words. He and George had been on a call since that morning, it was now the middle of the evening. George grew tired and his sentences began to mix into a mess of gibberish. Dream laughed at his efforts, but he failed almost every time. 

"Why are you so tired? You don't usually sleep until like six am your time," Dream questioned. His fingertips traced the keys of his keyboard and his legs grew tired of sitting down for endless hours. George managed a mumbled laugh, his camera was still on and he looked halfway drunk from tiredness. "I haven't been sleeping well, for obvious reasonsgh," He tripped over the ending of his sentence as his head fell to his shoulder and his eyes fluttered. 

"Go to sleep, you idiot. Don't you still need to talk to Karl and Quackity, too?" The words burned his tongue after they left his mouth. Even though he and George had spent nearly eleven hours on a call, he still felt the pain of knowing his friend had better friends. "No, I would've left hours ago." The first clear sentence from George in over an hour echoed in Dream's headset. 

"Why didn't you go?" Dream was intrigued, why hadn't he left already? "Because I'm talking you" George's words were slurring, and he forgot the 'to' in his sentence. Dream rolled his eyes, George was barely sober enough to have this conversation. He sounded like a drunk frat boy on a Saturday night. 

"You're exhausted, George. Go to sleep." George groaned and threw his head back. "Noooooo, I want to talk to youuu" George whined like a child, Dream felt as if he were a babysitter, only he wasn't being paid. His head was still thrown back, making his protruding adam's apple bob in the center of his throat. The collar of his sweatshirt had fallen, exposing his collarbones to the blinding lights fixed behind his desk. Dream was staring, he couldn't help himself. Perhaps from the lack of good sleep, or from his stomach growling at him to eat, he focused on George and George only. 

"Dream?" George spoke, pulling Dream out of his trance, his face flushing pink after he realized how long he'd stared. "Y-Yeah? Sorry," He stuttered, embarrassed at himself. George giggled, his voice was raspy, he was exhausted. "What were you doing?" His voice became clearer and less slurred, Dream was nervous he had dreamt the tired, incoherent George. 

"Oh, nothing. I was uhh, I was doing something," He was tripping over his words, the nerves choked him. He'd never felt like this, he'd also never blatantly stared at George before either. George laughed. "Oh, really? Tell me," George's voice was low and consuming, the straightforwardness of his tone startled Dream, causing him to shift in his chair. "Wh- Tell you what?" 

"Tell me what you were doing, what were you looking at?" Dream's face was bright red, he looked to his phone and webcam in fear that George had somehow seen him staring. Neither were on. "What are you talking about?" Dream was dumbfounded, he was unsure what to say. 

"Don't play dumb, just tell me what you were doing and I'll go to sleep," George threatened. Dream considered confessing, as long as it meant this conversation would end and he could devour a plate of food. Dream coughed. "I was looking at you, you look drunk off your ass," George flushed pink, he was apparently awake enough for Dream to catch him off guard. "What were you looking at?" Dream stared for a moment at George's fluttering eyelids, he was growing more and more tired by the minute. 

"I was looking at you." Dream repeated, the assertiveness in his tone made George's eyebrows raise. "What? Like what you see?" George was slurring his words again, Dream laughed. The awkward and tense moment had passed, but he knew George would go to sleep now. "Goodnight, George," Dream hovered his cursor over the red 'end call' button, but George stopped him before he could leave. 

"Wait! You didn't answer my question," Dream's vague tone woke George up, at least for a moment to end the call. Dream looked to the ceiling as he thought. He shrugged his shoulders. 

"Yeah, I do." He quickly left the call, not allowing George to reply. Dream stood up and finally stretched his legs after hours of sitting in the same position. A part of him wished George would call him back and flirt back with him, the playful flirting always cheered Dream up. But another part of him was glad he didn't- because he wasn't sure himself if the flirting was playful anymore. 

-

Dream's laughter echoed across the house as he watched Sapnap get killed by Karl in their game for the fifth time, and he could hear the pounding of Sapnap's fists from downstairs. "Fuck you, Karl! We're literally on the same team and you fucking blew me up!" Karl's laugh rang in Dream's headset, making Dream laugh even harder and clutch his stomach. Dream had died in the first ten minutes, along with George. The four were playing Fortnite and had been for hours. George was streaming, and the chat was filled with happy messages about Dream being there. 

Dream groaned and rested his hand on his stomach, his laughter subsiding. "What, Dream? Mad that you died to a bot?" Sapnap questioned Dream's groan. "No, my stomach hurts. I'm sore from abs yesterday at the gym," Dream immediately regretted his previous statement as the call filled with laughter. "You're such a douche, that's such a douchey thing to say," Sapnap laughed. Dream rolled his eyes. 

"What, Dream? You getting hot for the ladies?" George asked, playing along with the banter. "No, only for you," Dream snipped back, catching himself off guard. He physically stood up and walked away from his desk, he was taken back by the blatant flirting that had left his mouth. He had George's stream pulled up on his third monitor, and he could see George's face turning red as Karl and Sapnap laughed awkwardly. 

"Woah, Dream, kinda sus," Karl replied, easing the tension. Dream walked back to his desk and sat down, faking a laugh. "Whew, George's reaction was worth all of the fanfictions that will be made about that," Dream diffused the situation, the call filled with laughter from all four and they returned to their game. George rolled his eyes, his face was still bright pink. "You're so annoying," George remarked, making Dream grin. 

"You love it," The call fell silent besides Sapnap's keyboard spamming. Dream saw a text bubble appear on his phone, Sapnap messaged him. 

**Nick:** dude

Dream chuckled. 

**You:** Shut up, I'm creating content. Play along or I'll look like a horny mother fucker

Sapnap giggled at Dream's message and shut off his phone. "Oh wow, Gog, we were left out of the message. Dream and Sapnap are leaving us out again," Karl whined, his voice cracking. Dream and Sapnap both laughed. "No, you aren't. I was just telling Dream to back off Gogy because he's mine to make uncomfy," Sapnap bantered. 

_Thanks, Sapnap._

"Oh shut up," Dream watched as George rolled his eyes after Sapnap's comment. He took a breath and leaned back in his chair, away from his monitor. The friendly flirting was a normal occurrence between the four of them, Karl and Sapnap joked that they were fiances and, well, George and Dream. It was always normal, so why did this time feel different? That comment Dream had made came to him almost too easily, almost like he was _actually_ flirting with George. His name being screamed pulled him from his thoughts. 

"What?" The call filled with laughter as Dream sat confused. "We've been yelling at you to ready-up for like five minutes what are you doing," Sapnap yelled. _Had they really been yelling at him that long?_

"Sorry," Dream was too consumed in his thoughts to pay attention to what they were saying. He hovered over the 'ready' button, but nothing happened. He didn't want to play anymore. "Dream?" 

"Uh, yeah, sorry. I think I'm actually gonna get off, but thank you for the invite!" Dream felt a knot form in the bottom of his stomach, what happened? Whines and groans filled his ears, and he smiled at his friends' childish cries. "Dream, come on we died in the first twenty seconds last round, let's just play again," George whined. George's whines were the only ones that could've convinced him to stay, but he persisted. 

"I'm sorry, I'm tired and need to feed Patches and do things around the house." Dream watched George's eyes roll on his stream. Dream left the party and watched his character disappear on George's screen. "Goodnight, guys," He said before leaving the discord call. The only sound now was the sound of George's stream, which was a few seconds delayed from real-time. George didn't say anything for a few moments as he typed on his keyboard. Dream saw a message appear on his screen from Discord; it was George. 

**George:** you ok?

He didn't know how to respond, was he? Everything felt off, and he didn't know whether to tell him or not. 

**You:** yeah, i'm good! just tired

He saw George roll his eyes on the screen and fidget with his Fortnite character. He typed shortly after. 

**George:** we're talking after stream

Dream's heart dropped. George knew something was wrong, but he was streaming and couldn't ask immediately. He refocused on the game and Dream closed George's stream. He really did have housework to do, but it wasn't an immediate need. He just needed to get out of there. 

He left his bedroom and cleaned his kitchen while he listened to Sapnap's screams upstairs. He never cleaned unless he was nervous. But what for? He was nervous about the events to come during his and George's call. 

Another hour had passed before George messaged him. He'd halfway fallen asleep before George called him, and he was still groggy when he answered. "Hey," His voice was raspy and his vision was adjusting to being awake. "Hello, why do you sound like that?" 

"Sound like what?" Dream ruffled his hair, he wasn't fully awake, which might have made this conversation easier. "You sound all... raspy. Like you've just woken up," He could practically hear George's blush through the call. He laughed. "That's because I have," Dream massaged between his brows, he had a headache from being woken up. 

"Oh," Was all George said. Dream leaned backward and closed his eyes in an attempt to ease his headache. "What did you want to talk about?" It was only twelve for Dream, but he had been awake since early that morning and was tired. George's voice was low as he inched closer to his microphone, his question sent chills up Dream's arm. 

_"What was that comment about looking good for me?"_


	3. right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, any names in the story that aren't known IRL are fake! Also, I thought I should mention, I've made Dream's last name in this Porter. His real last name is unknown, but you kinda gotta have the last name for a character, just making that clear! Enjoy :D

The pace Dream's heart was beating at couldn't be healthy as he stared at George's face staring back at him in his monitor. His breath was unsteady, he wasn't sure how to cover up his mistake. He didn't know how to answer because even _he_ knew it wasn't playful banter, but George didn't need to know that. Dream laughed softly, trying to appear tired. 

"What do you mean? I was just messing with you," He tried to laugh, but it wasn't as effortless as normal. It wasn't as lighthearted as normal, and he hoped George wouldn't notice. George's face stayed plain and emotionless as he looked to his wall. "Really?" 

Dream's normal reaction would've been a snicker or a chuckle at George's crazy words, of course it was normal, they were best friends- right? "Why?" Instead of a chuckle or a snicker, he leaned closer to his desk and rested his hands on his keys, trying to distract himself. George rolled his eyes. "Come on, that was just lighthearted banter? Really?" Dream didn't know how to respond. 

"Of course, what else would it be?" George blushed and turned his face away from the camera. He looked embarrassed- at least that's what Dream made of his facial expression and suddenly flushed cheeks. "Oh, nothing, I guess." Dream expected his mood to rise after suddenly covering his mistake, but the sight of George's saddened face made him sink into his chair. His shoulders softened and his breathing did as well. 

"Well, I mean," George turned his gaze to the monitor, soon realizing he couldn't see Dream's face as he spoke. "It wasn't _just_ lighthearted banter, it was flirty." Dream's voice was low and his breath was shaky as he spoke. 

"Oh, really?" George's frown slowly rose into a grin as he waited for Dream's reply. Dream adjusted his seating position and inhaled deeply. "Yeah, I mean, it farms awes in the chat and it's entertaining. But, if you're uncomfortable with it, I'll stop," George's face slowly fell at Dream's words. He almost looked... _disappointed?_

"Oh, no. I'm not uncomfortable with it at all," Dream's face rose into a grin as he watched George fiddle with his fingers and look down from the camera. 

_This is not how I expected this conversation to go._

"Really," Dream's tone was excited slightly, which made George grin and look back to the monitor. George stared at the cartoon picture of Dream in his sweatshirt and sighed. "What provoked it?" Dream blew a raspberry with his lips and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. 

"You were trying to make me flustered because of my douchey comment about the gym, so I decided to throw it back to you," Dream's tone was confident, and George laughed. "That was a very douchey comment," Dream laughed. George still looked at the small drawn profile picture and shifted his seating position. 

"Turn on your camera," George's words caught Dream off guard. George had only seen older photos of Dream from when he was in high school, so he knew the general idea of what he looked like but not what he looked like recently. His hair was darker and longer, his body was leaner and more built, he was taller, and his style had changed drastically. In high school, Dream wore nothing but gym shorts and the occasional jogger with t-shirts and busted Nike's. Now, his style has improved slightly, but that's not the point. 

He considered it for a moment, his mouse grazed the mousepad as he inched it closer to the camera button. He stopped. "No," George groaned. "Why not?" He dragged the ending of his sentence as he leaned backward in his chair. Dream giggled. 

"I never have my camera on, you even said it yourself." Dream crossed his arms and leaned backward, his headache slowly rising closer to the surface after subsiding earlier. He rubbed between his brows. His head pounded harder and harder by the second, his vision was going dizzy and he felt nauseous. The sudden wave of nausea caused him to groan from pain, his arms rose and he massaged his temples. George was speaking but he couldn't make out what he was saying, everything around him felt as if he were underwater. 

"Dream?" George's words were finally comprehendible and Dream sat up, moving his mouse to the 'end call' button. "Sorry, I just got really nauseous. I- I think-" Dream couldn't finish his sentence, he felt as if he spoke another word he would pass out. His pulse was racing and he was breaking out in cold sweats. George shifted in his chair and reached for his phone, he was messaging someone. "Dream? What's going on? Do I need to call for help?" George was panicked, his pulse raced. Dream couldn't say a word. He was dizzy, his mind was cloudy and the sounds around him were glossed over. 

Soon, Sapnap was barging through Dream's door and walking to his friend, who was now halfway unconscious in his desk chair, his head leaning back. His breathing was unsteady and heavy. Sapnap took the headphones from his head and put them on. Dream stayed completely still. "George, I'll text you," Sapnap said quickly before he ended the call and kneeled to Dream, who was now breathing rapidly. 

"Dream? What the hell? Should I call your mom?" Dream nodded, it was all he could do. He could barely make out the word 'mom' and assumed Sapnap was asking to call his mom. Soon, his vision slowly faded and he sunk into the depths of his chair, feeling as if he were falling endlessly as he listened to Sapnap's cries in the distance. 

-

"What do we do?" Sapnap asked as he sat on the couch. George was blowing up his phone with questions, but Sapnap had no answers. He only had the presence of Dream's mom to calm his nerves. 

"Nothing, this happened a few times when he was a kid, I'm glad you called me before 911, though, that would have been an unnecessary medical bill." Dream's mom, Melissa, said. She handed him a mug of hot chocolate, as per her offer to calm him down. She sat on the couch across from him. "All we can do is wait until he wakes up." Sapnap sighed. "That's it? Isn't this concerning?" Melissa smiled. "It was the first couple of times it happened. The doctor said it's likely brought on from excessive amounts of stress, but they didn't give us a for-sure answer." She was so calm, her voice was soothing amidst the chaos. 

"So they don't know what it is? They don't know why he just- passes out?" She shook her head as she drank her coffee. "No, he's a medical mystery. He's had three EEGs, multiple heart tests, blood work, allergy tests, anything you can think of. They monitored his brain underneath flashing lights, they did every test we could think of. We spent hours at Neurology centers and doctor's offices, even emergency rooms the first time it happened, nothing could be done." Sapnap was baffled- how come Dream never told him about this? 

"They thought it was a form of epilepsy ultimately- but that was what they told us so that we didn't leave with no answers. But in all honesty, they couldn't find what causes it or a name for it. He doesn't have any other signs of epilepsy, so it's not that. He's just a mystery." She looked to the floating shelves lining the wall, they were filled with family and friend photos. She smiled at a photo of Dream in a white and orange baseball uniform. He looked to be around thirteen or fourteen years old.

"How old was he when it first started happening?" Sapnap's voice cracked, his hot chocolate was now lukewarm. She looked back to Sapnap and sighed. "The first time it happened he was eleven, but it happened enough times by age thirteen that we decided to have him checked out." She looked back to the photo, his cheesy grin reached from one side of his face to the next, his orange brace-bands matched his uniform perfectly. 

"When were the tests done?" Sapnap was eager to find out about his friend's frightening condition. "He was thirteen when the tests started, they didn't end until he was around fourteen, a little bit older. He's never been back, and they're not as frequent now, but they do happen on occasion. It's nothing life-threatening, he just goes unconscious for certain amounts of time until he wakes up," She sounded so calm about the whole thing, but there were remnants of frustration behind her words. 

"He says he remembers passing out, and he remembers waking up like from a nap, but he doesn't remember what happened during the..." She didn't know what to call it. "Episode." Sapnap frowned and stood to reheat his hot chocolate, as it now was cold in his mug. 

Sapnap and Melissa sat chatting in the living room until they heard rustling behind them and looked to see a sleepy Dream emerge from his bedroom. His hair was messy and he looked dazed and confused, but the look on Sapnap's face was enough to wake him up. Sapnap crashed into his taller friend with a hug, his arm wrapping the giant and squeezing. Dream muffled a groan and opened his eyes, being met with his mother smiling across from him. 

"Mom? What are you doing here?" She smiled and hugged her son, Sapnap pulled away to give them room. "Nick called, said you had an episode." Her voice was so calm it almost confused Sapnap, his vision darted to Dream as he groaned and stretched his arms above his head. 

The three chatted for a little while before Melissa dismissed herself from the house, and told Sapnap to call if anything like this happened again. He agreed and wished her goodbye before she locked the door on her way out. Dream groaned and plopped his- rather large- body on his cushioned white couch. 

"Why the hell did you never tell me about this?" Dream groaned. "It didn't come up," Sapnap was slightly mad. "Well, maybe if someone comes to LIVE with you, you should tell them about your epilepsy and potential seizures that might happen while they're there, just a thought." Sapnap raised his voice as he followed Dream into the kitchen, Dream scavenging for food in his cupboards. 

"They're not seizures, and it's not epilepsy. They don't know what the hell it is and neither do I." Dream was annoyed, but Sapnap was more annoyed. "Well whatever the hell it is, it would've been nice to know about it before it happened." Dream rolled his eyes. 

"It hasn't happened since I was sixteen, I didn't think anything would happen." Dream groaned as he looked for food, but his shelves were bone dry, his mom hadn't bought him food. 

"Dream, the sight of you completely pale and bent backward in your chair isn't exactly comforting. I know it's probably annoying not knowing what's wrong with you, but I'm just glad you're ok." Sapnap sighed and sat at a barstool as he watched his friend fiend for food. Dream's shoulders softened and he sighed. 

"I'm sorry, I don't like telling people about it. Which is why I hope you won't tell George," He trailed off, leaving Sapnap confused. "Why wouldn't you want George to know?" He furrowed his brows as he watched Dream pull out his phone and open DoorDash. He groaned as he looked at the time: one forty am. DoorDash wasn't delivering at this time. 

"I just, I'm not ready to tell him yet. So, just say that I got nauseous and went to sleep. That's basically what happened anyway," Sapnap nodded and gave up, whatever reasons Dream had for not wanting to tell George were his, even if it seemed stupid. Sapnap didn't want to deal with a hangry Dream and offered to take them to the only 24-hour drive-thru place in the area: McDonald's. 

-

Dream woke up to the sounds of knocking at his door, and a faint 'Dreammmm' being spoken. He groaned and let Sapnap in, who was on FaceTime with George. He pulled the covers over his body to hide his face, but mostly to hide his shirtless torso. "Oh Dreammmmmmm," Sapnap taunted as he held the phone to his ear. He could hear muffled laughter echoing from his phone through the covers. 

"Let me see you," George's British accent made Dream laugh but he still wouldn't remove the covers. Sapnap teased Dream about being insecure around his boyfriend, which sent butterflies to his stomach at the thought of George being his _boyfriend._

"Fuck off, I'm naked," Dream muffled through the covers. Sapnap laughed and tugged on the covers. "Ooooh lemme see," Sapnap pulled the covers off of Dream, luckily the phone was facing Sapnap and not Dream, and Dream shot Sapnap a glance, which Sapnap understood the message of 'don't fucking show my face or I'll kick you out of my house,' very quickly. He backed away and let Dream stand up, him slowly towering over Sapnap and walking to his closet. Obviously, he wasn't naked. He was wearing gray joggers and no shirt but said he was naked to make Sapnap back off. 

"Oooh daddy Dream, you're hot. Look at those abs that made you so sore at the gym!" Sapnap cackled and nearly fell to the floor, Dream only rolled his eyes and flipped off Sapnap as he pulled a random sweatshirt from his closet. "Literally fuck you, suck my dick, Sapnap." The words only made Sapnap- and now George- laugh even harder. "Fuck you too, George," Dream said, now laughing as well. 

He wished George was here with them. They could be sharing this laughter in person, rather than over the phone. They could all be _together._

"I wanna see Dreammmm" George whined and Dream flushed pink, hiding his face from Sapnap. Sapnap made a face at Dream's sudden display of embarrassment and grinned. "Awww, are you scared of letting Georgie see how hot you are?" Dream's face was stern, which made Sapnap stop. The conversation slowly died down from there, and Sapnap left with George to the living room. 

Dream sat on his bed and held his head in his hands. Why _didn't_ he want George to see him? Why was he so awkward on the phone? Why didn't he just invite him to stay with them? They had plenty of room, so why couldn't George just come whenever he wanted? I mean, they were all best friends, right? 

_Right?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: that epilepsy bit there is actually personal haha, that same thing happened to someone I know and I thought I'd share, they're completely fine with it. I thought I'd add it in to make Dream a little bit more interesting as if his Leo ass wasn't interesting enough o_O


	4. tulips

The scent of daisies and grass filled George's sinuses as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings. He sat up quickly, now glancing at the scene before him. He was asleep in a field of daisies that seemed to carry on for miles. The sun was closer to the east, meaning it was before midday. His eyes were still adjusting to the sudden brightness of the sky and he looked down at his body; he was wearing beige pants and a white cotton tunic, his skin was soft like satin sheets, his clothes seemed to fit perfectly and he felt no discomfort. 

He slowly stood as his eyes adjusted to the field. He felt taller, broader, and confident. His hair was longer and thicker, he'd always struggled with his hair but couldn't let it grow out. 

He seemed to be his perfect image of himself; _the image he never thought he'd be._

As he looked around, he found himself completely lost and confused as to where he was. The weather was perfect, there was a warm summer breeze flowing through his hair and grazing his skin, the sun was warm and inviting, he was in his happy place. 

He began to walk, walk in any direction. All directions looked to be the same: daisies for miles. He never grew tired no matter how many miles he walked, his feet never grew sore and he never ran out of breath. He couldn't say he was too fond of daisies, they were alright, but his favorite flowers were tulips. 

Soon, the sun began to fall closer to the west side hill and it grew slightly cooler, but still not uncomfortable. As he walked, he began to migrate into a field of white tulips, his favorite flower. Soon, the field was full of tulips and no more daisies were in sight. He'd began to lose hope of ever finding out where he was until he saw a seated figure in the distance. The figure was too far to make out exactly what it was, so he walked closer. As he approached the figure, he saw it had light brown hair, maybe dirty blonde in direct sunlight. It was a man, a very tall and broad man. Broader than George, and much taller. 

As he grew closer, he noticed the man was holding a daisy and examining its petals. The man was wearing black dress pants and a button-down white collared shirt as if he had just come back from a wedding or formal event, but the sleeves were short enough for it to be considered 'casual'. He had on jewelry and a watch, his skin was perfectly tanned and soft. He _glistened_ as the sunlight fell onto his skin, accentuating his features perfectly. 

His back was turned to George as he sat in the field with his knees raised and his elbows resting on them. George couldn't see him, but the man was familiar. "Hello?" George's voice was the same as it was before, but he sounded more confident and high-strung. The man looked back to George, his face was beautiful. He had a slightly squared jaw and light freckles, he had a dimple on his left cheek only and perfectly straight teeth as he smiled at George. 

"Hey, George," The man motioned for George to sit near him. His voice was low and raspy, almost as if he'd just woken up. His voice was familiar, and George took a seat next to the mysterious man. The grass felt as if it were a soft mattress, George could simply die in the field and be at peace. "Who are you?" The man looked to George and smiled. 

"I guess it's my own fault you don't recognize me," Immediately, it clicked in George's head. _The man was Dream._ George's eyes widened as he took another look at him, taking in all of his features. _That's_ why he recognized him. "Dream?" He leaned his head back and laughed, his familiar voice filling George's ears, making him smile. 

"Hey." Dream smiled at George and he smiled back, his heart fluttering. The two didn't speak a word. Dream lifted his hand to cup George's face, his hand fitting seamlessly around the shape of his cheek. George leaned into his hand and closed his eyes, absorbing the warm feeling inside of him. 

"Where are we?" George's voice was soft, and Dream set down his daisy on the patch of grass they were sitting in, trying to not disturb the other flowers. "You tell me, George," George furrowed his brows and looked at the slight grin appearing on Dream's face. "How would I know where we are?" 

"Because George," Dream cleared his throat, the rasp disappearing. "We're in your head." George was confused and reached his hand out, touching Dream's forearm. He and Dream looked down at George's hand grazing his forearm, and Dream smiled as he met George's gaze. 

"What do you mean?" George removed his hand from Dream's arm and looked out to the endless field of tulips before them. Their beauty was captivating. Dream smiled at George. "You're dreaming, George. Didn't you notice how perfect it is here?" George met Dream's gaze, his eyes were... green? Green! His eyes were green, and George could see it! He smiled at the dark shade of emerald green that George seemed to drown in. 

"Our skin is soft and glows in the sunlight, we're taller and stronger, our hair is soft, our clothes fit perfectly, we never get tired or hot or cold, the weather is perfect. This is paradise, George." Dream took George's hand in his and rubbed the top of George's hand with his thumb, sending invisible goosebumps up George's arm. 

"Your eyes are beautiful," Dream smiled at George. "See? You can see colors. It's _perfect_ here," George looked down at their conjoined hands and smiled. 

"If I'm dreaming, how do I know I'm dreaming? Normally when I dream I'm not aware of what's happening." Dream touched the back of his hand to George's face and slowly touched his cheek, his face heating up. "I'm not sure, it's your head, George." Dream laughed and looked in front of them, removing his hand from George's cheek. 

The sun was falling further behind the west mountain and the golden hour slowly faded to darkness. George looked down to their hands again, remembering where this scene was. "I've been here before." Dream shifted his gaze to the brunette sitting beside him, the two were so close they could hear each other's heartbeat. "Oh, yeah?" George furrowed his brows, remembering when he'd been here. 

He was a child and had visited with his parents years and years ago. The field was simply a place his mind fled to when he was dreaming. He had the dream reoccur almost every night as a kid, and it always ended the same way, which led to it becoming a nightmare. 

Every night, the same dream would happen. He would wake up in a field of flowers, the sun was always rising and the weather was always perfect. He never grew tired and he never grew weak. He would walk for hours aimlessly until nightfall. 

Without a fear in the world, without trouble in sight, he looked back to his and Dream's intertwined hands and sighed. 

"I don't know why we're here, but it's perfect here, don't you enjoy that?" Dream's face was expressionless. "Nothing is ever perfect, George." As the words left his mouth the final shadow of sunlight left the field, darkness slowly falling over them. 

With the weather still perfect and no trouble in sight, George looked to Dream and met his gaze. The two held eye contact for minutes before George broke their gaze to look at the field of flowers before them. They were beautiful. George had always loved tulips, as they were his mother's favorite flower. Her favorite was the red tulips, though, whereas George's were white. George slowly picked a flower from the ground and examined its petals. 

"I wonder how these are all alive." As the words left George's tongue, the field slowly started dying right before their eyes. Uniformly, each flower began to fall slowly. George felt Dream panic next to him, and he looked to meet his gaze. 

"What the hell?" Dream's voice was shaky and George could hear the panic in his voice as he observed the field before them dying. Every single flower as far as they could see was dying immediately before their eyes. George sighed, as he knew this would happen. This is exactly what happened in every nightmare he had as a kid. 

The dream was different now. George was usually alone, all other times before now he was alone. He would walk for hours completely alone until he'd find the field of tulips and sit down to rest. 

"George, what's happening?" Dream was in full panic and George's heart sank into his stomach. _He_ was causing Dream this panic in his heart. He didn't know what to say to him, so he squeezed his hand. 

He felt a gust of wind hit him, his body immediately growing cold and he began to shiver. Dream pulled his legs to his chest to conserve heat, but didn't remove his hand from George's. George's legs began to ache and he grew colder. 

_Just like how it's supposed to happen._

After he'd sit in the dream, the darkness would fall and the flowers would die, it's almost as if the earth was poisonous and the only patch of live earth was the grass he lied in. Eventually, the cold became too much to bear. He'd writhe in pain. He'd scream and wail and beg for mercy from whoever was controlling his mind. Even if it was himself. 

He would lay in the field of dead flowers for days, starving, dehydrated, cold, miserable, and suffering. He would be starving, cold, and completely alone. The dream never ended the same way, he'd either die from starvation, dehydration, hypothermia, or he'd try to eat the flowers and be poisoned. Either way, he'd die alone. 

Except for this time, it was different. He woke up to Dream in the field with him. He'd never remembered it was a dream until the next morning when he woke up in cold sweats, nearly paralyzed from fear. He was hopeful this dream wouldn't turn out like the rest. 

"Why did you bring me here? W- What's going on?" Dream shivered in George's hand as he panicked. George wanted nothing more than to relieve Dream of his panic, but he didn't know how to. "Just relax, it'll be over soon." He lied. It wouldn't be over soon. 

George still held the tulip in his hand, and it hadn't died yet. He examined the flower as it slowly began to decay in his grip, it was the only flower for miles that was alive. Soon, the flower was dead. He set the flower on the ground next to him and sighed. 

"Dream, the last flower is dead," He spoke but received no response. He looked behind him and saw nobody. His hand was in the same spot it had been before when he was holding Dream's hand, but Dream was gone. George didn't bother looking around for him, partly because he knew he wasn't there but also because his skin was numb from the cold. He lied in the grass and wrapped his arms around himself to conserve heat, but none was there. 

A single tear shed from his eye as he thought of Dream's panicked expression before he disappeared. He was still shivering and hungry, but only now it was like the others; _he was completely alone._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a short one! this was actually a chapter I had written for another fic I never posted bc I lost interest in, but I really loved the concept and decided to add it here. the chapter was short, but will 100% be important soon :,) thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!


	5. deprived

The cool winter air brushed against his skin as he awoke from his sleep. Patches was clawing and meowing at his door begging for food. Dream reluctantly got up from his bed and walked to the door, Patches stopping once the door opened. She purred and brushed against his leg, he remembered he slept shirtless once again when the thermostat read 54º and goosebumps rose onto the surface of his skin. He detoured from feeding Patches to his closet where he pulled a sweatshirt to shield him from the cold. 

He looked through his sweaters, none of them were appealing. Not that he needed a proper one to wear around his house, but he wanted to wear a special one, for whatever reason. He thumbed through the tens of sweatshirts he owned until he stumbled upon a baby blue sweatshirt with red and white lettering. He didn't wear it often, but he did appreciate the quality. Rolling his eyes, he grabbed the sweatshirt and put it on. 

The warm fleece brushed against his skin, immediately warming him. He rolled his eyes at himself and left to feed Patches, who was now meowing to him again. 

As he opened the can of cat food for Patches, Dream heard a loud groan come from upstairs and thumping down the stairs. He didn't turn around, but he could feel Sapnap's eyes piercing his back. 

"Why, the FUCK is the heater set for FIFTY DEGREES" Dream laughed at Sapnap's frustrated yells as he stood up from feeding Patches. Dream rolled his eyes and walked to the thermostat to turn on the heater, which was already set to 70º. "Sapnap! Why the hell is it at 70? Are you trying to have a three-thousand dollar electric bill?" Sapnap laughed as he pulled down a mug from the cupboard. 

The two bickered back and forth about the heater, Sapnap claiming Dream was cold-blooded from how cold he keeps the house at. Dream offered to make the two breakfast, and Sapnap happily agreed. They spoke of random nonsense while Dream's pan for pancakes heated up, as pancake mix was the only thing he had in the house. He really needed to grocery shop. Dream turned his back to Sapnap and heard a faint gasp as he poured the mix onto the pan. 

Sapnap screamed, startling Dream into accidentally pouring too much mix into one spot, creating a massive pancake. "Sapnap what the hell!" Dream and George yelled in unison, the sound of the other's voice making each other tense up. Sapnap laughed at their sudden jumps. 

"Aww look at us, all of us together!" Sapnap giggled, bringing the phone to Dream. Dream peered over and saw George's rosy face on Sapnap's phone, him showing a small smile at his friend. The three bantered back and forth until Dream's and Sapnap's food was ready, and they sat at the bar, still speaking to George. 

Their conversation felt normal, for the first time in a while it felt like old times. It felt like months ago when they would sit on TS calls until four AM talking about nonsense and video ideas, what next to do on the SMP or what kind of concepts they should use for their videos. 

It felt like during the summer when Sapnap had his thing with his ex-girlfriend and they would sit in calls and listen to Sapnap gush about her, or when Dream and his ex broke up and Sapnap and George would give him advice on what to do. They missed talking about drunken texts George would send and regret the next day, or the concoctions Sapnap would create while high, or the dumb things Dream did while sleep deprived. 

"George, why don't you come to the US?" The question startled both Sapnap and George after it left Dream's lips, creating a change of subject. Sapnap nearly choked on his pancake after Dream's question, making him pound his fist onto the marble counters. 

"Yeah! George, we have like two spare rooms and we can buy you a desk and you can bring your PC and bring Cat too! It'll be so much fun!" Sapnap sounded like a little kid as the words of excitement left his mouth. His eyes glistened with happiness as the three developed a plan for George to come to the US. 

"You guys are sure? I don't want to impose on your plans," George was insecure about the entire exchange. Dream laughed as he rinsed his and Sapnap's dishes and placed them in the dishwasher. "George, we specifically got the house with extra bedrooms for _you._ Don't worry about it, this was our plan anyway." 

-

Hearing the words leave Dream's mouth sparked a flame in his heart. George's breath hitched as he heard Dream so confidently offer for them to live together. After the dream George had the night before, talking, let alone living, with Dream sounded terrifying. 

_What the fuck was that dream?_

He couldn't let his mixed emotions get in the way of him seeing and potentially living with his two greatest friends in the world, so he agreed. His plane ticket was bought for a month in advance, and he would start shipping his bigger items over now. He, Sapnap, and Dream would go shopping once he arrived for the smaller things or the living necessities such as a bed and mattress. 

Amidst the chaos and plan-making, he couldn't get the dream off of his mind. He couldn't stop thinking about it, the bizarre way that the flowers shifted from daisies to tulips, the way he felt so at peace with the world, the fact that he knew he was dreaming, 

_the fact that Dream was there,_

It all sat in the back of his mind festering, catching flame into an inevitable confession to Dream. He had so many questions, but none of them could be answered. He hadn't dreamt of that field since he was ten or eleven years old, so why now? Why, after all these years, why did he dream of it last night? Why did he know he was dreaming, and why did he remember every second of the dream when he woke up? 

He remembers being there, he remembers touching the blades of grass and the stems of the flowers. He remembers the cool breeze that grazed his shoulders and exposed skin as he walked. He remembers never growing tired or thirsty or hungry. He remembers the warm sun shining above him, warming his scalp and shoulders. He remembers Dream. He remembers the way Dream's hand cupped the side of his face, and he remembers the way their hands perfectly intertwined- as if they were meant to be together. 

He remembers what Dream looked like. He remembered the shape of his hands, which were the same hands as he saw today whilst on the phone with Sapnap in the kitchen. He remembers his hair, it indeed was a dark shade of blonde in direct sunlight, but it looked light brown when the sun fell over the mountain. He remembers how Dream smelt: he smelt of lavender and eucalyptus. He remembers seeing green. He remembers seeing Dream's dark emerald eyes that sparkled in the sunlight. He remembers Dream's square jaw and single dimple on his left cheek. He remembers his dark eyebrows and the way they were kept but slightly messy around the tails. 

He remembers all of it, he remembers Dream's face so vividly he could almost draw it, he could pick Dream out of a crowd. He remembers the softness of Dream's voice, and how gentle he was when speaking to George. It was perfect. 

_Nothing is ever perfect, George._

Dream's words rang in his head, he was right. It wasn't perfect. The flowers died and Dream panicked. He shivered and wailed in George's arms. After the last flower died, Dream disappeared with it. George was left alone. He was left alone just like all of the other hundreds of times he had the nightmare as a kid. He remembered the growling that emitted from his stomach. He remembered the never-ending pain and discomfort he felt. 

"George?" Sapnap brought George out of his haze, refocusing his attention to the call he was in. He looked at his phone and noticed a baby blue arm pass by his screen. He grinned. "What was that?" Sapnap pulled up the phone to show his face, he was wearing a black hoodie. 

"Dream, are you wearing my merch?" Dream froze. Sapnap laughed and Dream chuckled with him. "Maybe," George's cheeks flushed pink, but he didn't care. He cared that Dream _bought_ his merch, and now was wearing it for no reason. 

"Lemme see," George hoped for an attractive, dirty-blonde haired man to appear on his screen wearing his hoodie, but all he saw was a forearm swipe across the camera. George rolled his eyes. "Dream, how am I meant to recognize you at the airport if I don't know what you look like?" George whined, and Dream laughed in the distance. 

"You won't, you'll see me then. Another reason, I won't show you what I look like until you get here," Dream's words provoked George. "Dreammm" He wouldn't give in. 

The unknown of Dream's appearance made George more anxious than ever. He wanted nothing more than to know if the man in his dream was actually the man on the other side of the screen. He needed to know if it was actually Dream or if it was an image of what his brain thought Dream looked like. 

-

Later in the evening, Dream and George sat on their late-night TeamSpeak calls discussing the trip to Florida. Sapnap had gone to sleep an hour earlier and it was just the two of them, each engulfed in their own unexplored feelings. 

"Are you excited?" Dream asked as he listened to George shift in his chair. George sighed. "Yeah, I'm nervous, though." Dream cleared his throat. "Why?" George's voice was shaky. 

_"Because of a dream I had of you last night."_

Dream was silent. George sighed. "What was it about?" Dream heard George's breath catch in his throat. "What?" George sounded shocked, almost like he accidentally thought out loud. 

"Your dream, what was it about?" Dream's interest was piqued. "Oh fuck, did I say that out loud?" Dream laughed, and George stayed silent. "Yes, I thought you meant to do that." George exhaled. 

"So, what was your dream about?" George groaned, maybe a little bit too loud, and leaned back in his chair. "Well, it was a reoccurring dream that I used to have as a kid. It's in a flower field." Dream adjusted his seating position, he was fully interested in George's story. "Go on," 

"I'd been to this field like one time as a kid, I was young, and it was this beautiful field full of daisies, there was a field of tulips miles down the road as well. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen." George spoke passionately, it made Dream smile. 

"Anyway, as I said, I've been here one time. Then I had this dream hundreds of times as a kid. I wake up in this field- except for the trail is completely gone. It's pure flowers everywhere." Dream listened closely to the other man's words, envisioning the scene he was painting for him. 

"In the dream, I wake up at probably around eleven am, the sun is closest to the east, but not midday. I'm the perfect envisionment of myself, it's quite embarrassing, really, and I never grow tired." George went on about the events of his dream, he was telling the story well. Dream was intrigued. He told until he got to the part where he met Dream when he stopped for a moment. 

"What's wrong?" George sighed. "This is when I meet you." Dream's eyebrows raised. "Oh yeah? Was I attractive?" Dream chuckled, but George didn't. "I mean, you looked exactly how I thought you would look. You wore better shoes, though." It was George's turn to laugh, and Dream didn't. "They've gotten better." George laughed. "Dream, your subscribers sent you shoes. That's why they're good." 

"Carry on with your story, it's just getting good now because I'm here." Dream laughed and sat back down to listen to the story. 

"Well, I didn't recognize you, of course, and that's actually what you said when I asked who you were. You said 'I guess it's my fault you don't recognize me." Dream laughed. "That is what I would say," George gasped. "See! That's the thing, you acted exactly how you do in real life, it was weird. I thought we were actually there." 

"Anyway, we just talked about random shit all day." George was leaving something out, Dream could hear the way his voice changed from confident to him stumbling over his words like he was trying to come up with something on the spot. 

"That's all we did?" Dream's voice was low as he leaned closer to the mic. "Y-Yeah? Why?" George stuttered. He was hiding something. "You're hiding something." George's breath caught in his throat. "Why would you say that?" Dream didn't know, but he also didn't know why he cared so much. 

"I can tell, George, _I know you._ " George sighed. "Well, it was... weird. W-We did things." Dream's eyebrows raised again, and his heart raced. "O-Oh yeah? What kind of stuff?" George chuckled slightly. "I mean, nothing terrible. Yo- You do know I can't control my dreams, right?" Dream laughed, still eerily close to his mic. "Go on," George cleared his throat. 

"Well, it was little cute shit. Like, we held hands and you touched my cheek, it wasn't weird but it wasn't normal." Dream smiled widely, he didn't know why he liked hearing those words leave George's mouth. "Aww, cute." Dream cooed, the genuine tone caught Dream off guard as well as George. 

"Oh shut up, anyway, we just sat down and talked for hours. Then, as the sun set you started asking me why I bought you here. I didn't understand and you told me I was dreaming. I was really confused because I didn't understand why you would tell me I was dreaming." 

"I asked you why you cared why we were there because it was perfect. We were alone with each other and everything was perfect, the way we wanted it. And you told me... you told me _nothing was perfect._ " The words gave Dream chills. They weren't even special words, but for some reason, they held meaning.

"After you said that, the sun finished setting and the flower field started dying. Uniformly, they all started dying until each flower was dead, each one was dead for miles except for one I had picked from the ground. After you told me nothing was perfect, everything that was perfect started dying and going back to normal. It became freezing cold, we grew hungry and tired, you were panicked and I couldn't do anything. I told you it would all be over soon, but I lied." Dream was quiet, he was listening. 

"That dream happened to me every night, I would lie suffering in a field of dead tulips, starving, tired, and cold. But most importantly, alone. I was always alone, which is why when I saw you it was different because I was always alone before, then you were there." 

"Anyway, long story short, after the flower in my hand died I looked behind me to you and you were gone, just like all of the other times. Then I was alone until I woke up." Dream yawned and stared back to his text-filled monitor. That dream was nothing short of scary, but also romantic, in a way. He liked that. 

"That was intense." George scoffed. "I'll say." 

The atmosphere was tense after George explained the dream. Dream was exhausted, but he didn't want to leave the call. "We should probably go to sleep," George muttered. Dream whined, "I want to talk to you." The sleep deprivation was setting in, and George laughed. 

"You're deprived." George's tone was soft and sweet, Dream practically melted. "I'm deprived of _you,_ George." George's breath caught in his throat. 

"Shut up," Dream could hear the smile in his voice as he lied his cheek down on his desk, feeling tipsy as a result of his lack of sleep. "Come on, George, just talk to me." His words slurred over his tongue, he wanted to sleep, but he wanted George more. 

"Dream, are you drunk?" There was a slight laugh in his question. "Why would I be drunk?" Dream felt his eyes flutter. "Because you only flirt with me when you're drunk." Dream's eyebrows raised. 

_"I don't drink, George."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooh, a wee bit of angst ;) very excited for what's to come, i hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	6. partner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning! there's mentions of mary jane (ikywim) in this, that's all :p

The purple nether portal glowed against Dream's screen as he stood in front of Tommy's pixelated character. He laughed maniacally as he watched Tommy and Tubbo beg for their lives. "It's about time, it's about time anyway." Tubbo's saddened tone of voice echoed through his headset as he spoke to his best friend for the potential last time. 

"Say your goodbye's," Dream was allowing Tommy and Tubbo to say their goodbye's before he took Tubbo to his death after their loss on the mountain. The disk war still was not over, but Dream couldn't let Tommy die, his character meant too much to Dream. character. 

As the words left his tongue, Punz's Minecraft character appeared through the nether portal, startling the three. "I'm sorry, Dream." Punz's words resulted in silence from the two teenage boys stood before him. Dream turned to look at Punz, who was standing away from the nether portal now. "Punz?" 

"I'm sorry, Dream. You should've paid me more." As Punz said his final word, tens of the other SMP members appeared through the nether portal. Tommy and Tubbo gasped and ran to each other, Tommy stood in front of Tubbo to protect him. "You came!" Tommy exclaimed, his voice filled with excitement. 

Tommy and Tubbo ran behind the group of warriors in netherite armor, and he chased after them. He couldn't let them get away, not this easily. He ran to them but was stopped by Sapnap, who struck him with his sword, setting him on fire. "Step away from them." Sapnap stood as a wall between Dream and his unfinished business. 

_My own best friend?_

"Guys, it wasn't me that blew up the community house! It was him!" All of Dream's former friends and SMP members stood before him, they all stood together to protect Tommy and Tubbo. 

Dream knew he was done for, there was no way he could fight his way through the crowd of people stood before him, so he backed himself into the hallway. Words were exchanged, and Dream knew he was done for. Even his own best friend was stood before him defending the very two people that tore apart the server. The very two naive teenagers that created conflict and division, the two that caused him to lose his best friends, everything he ever cared about. 

"Dream," Tommy stood near him and dug a hole into the blackstone hole, a hole two blocks deep. Dream looked to the hole, knowing exactly what Tommy's next words would entail. "Put your armor in the hole." 

Everything he cared about was gone. Everything he ever worked for, vanished before his eyes. His best friend, his SMP mother, the people he hated, the people that were nice to him no matter how mean he was to them, the original people that joined the server with him, all stood against him. Reluctantly, he threw his items into the hole. 

He watched and listened as everyone cheered as he was led up the elevator with Sam, Punz, and Sapnap. He was armorless, friendless, and he was on his last canon life. He lost. 

He was led by Sam to the terrifying prison. This wasn't meant for him, it was meant for someone else. He lost everything. The long and disgusting process of his imprisonment was dreadful, but he soon watched as lava poured from the ceiling onto the floor. He was left in an obsidian room surrounded by lava with mining fatigue 3 and a clock. 

After Tommy ended his stream, he left the server. 

Dream stretched his arms above his head and swiveled in his chair. The lack of sleep shown in his eyes, he and Sapnap had been theorizing video ideas until the lore started, and then that took over two hours. 

He heard the sound of a discord call ringing in his headset. He looked to the side of his screen and saw George was calling him. His hand brushed over the mouse, remembering their conversation from the night before, and cautiously answered. 

"Hello?" George sounded extremely tired, his words were unclear despite the single word he spoke. "Hi," Dream was tired, but would never reject the chance to talk to his favorite person. George mumbled a laugh and his voice grew further from the mic, he sounded different. "Hello Dweammm" 

_He's drunk._

"George? Are you drunk?" Dream tried not to laugh, but he always enjoyed drunk George whenever he came around to play. "Mmm no, I'm high." Dream couldn't help but laugh, his laugh was low from his exhaustion levels, but he was intrigued. "What happened? You don't smoke," George mumbled something incoherently, and Dream questioned what he said. 

"Well, I didn't smoke. My sister came by with brownies and she accidentally left them on the counter so I might have had one.." Dream was giggling at this point, the thought of high George was hilarious to him. "Or three," George whispered, making Dream laugh harder. 

"Turn on your camera." George waited a moment but gave in, his eyes were nearly swollen shut and red all over, his eyes were barely open. Dream wheezed and George blushed, no matter how many different substances he was on, Dream still made him blush. 

"Stop it, nobody is home, they all left. It's just me and I'm high off my ass. I don't think I like it." George stared at the wall behind his camera, he was completely out of it. Dream suppressed his laughter, he didn't like the effects weed had on him either, so he had empathy for his friend. 

"Are you anxious?" George shook his head. "No, but I was, that's why I called you." Dream couldn't help but smile. "Ok well, have you drank water? Have you eaten anything besides the pot brownies?" Dream was visibly concerned. George groaned. 

"Come on, there's nothing you want to say while I'm high?" George whined. Dream smiled and pushed his hair from his face. "Nothing you want to _do_ to me?" George's voice was low, and Dream stopped laughing. He sat up in his chair, closer to his monitor. 

"What do you mean?" Dream wasn't joking, and he didn't think George was either. "Mmm, you know what I mean." Dream's heart was racing a mile a minute. What was George insinuating?

"I don't think I do, George. You're high." Dream brought the mouth of his water bottle to his lips and took a long drink while he waited for George's response. 

"Well, I reckon I'm a horny high." Dream nearly shot water out of his nostrils when he heard the words leave George's mouth. Water went down the wrong pipe and Dream choked, barely able to breathe. George had concern written all over his face as he leaned closer to his monitor. "Dream? Are you ok?" When Dream was finally able to catch his breath, he laughed. "I'm going to use that against you when you're sober tomorrow," George was now blushing. 

"I'm too high to understand you, but ok. I like when you make me all flustered." He wouldn't stop with the flirty comments. "Oh, do you?" Dream pulled out the voice he used all of the other times to make George crazy. His voice was low and almost unemotional. 

"Mmhmm." George's head was leaned back on his computer chair, his adam's apple was prominent on his neck. 

_God, that chair swallows him, he's so small._

Dream dismissed the thought from his mind as he continued to tease George, his responses getting less and less wordy by the sentence. George groaned after Dream said a particularly flirty comment, making George squirm in his chair. 

George was right, it was fun to flirt with him while he was high. 

"Ugh, I've got to go. I can't keep listening to you flirt with me and be expected not to respond." Dream laughed. "I never said you couldn't respond," George raised his brows. "It's not as fun sober, go get Sapnap's weed and join me." He laughed, "I don't like weed, but try me. I'm interested to see what you come up with." Dream was intrigued. 

"Hmm," George thought for a moment. "I think you could fit your entire hand around my neck easily." Dream's eyes widened and his face beamed red, he wasn't expecting that at all. His voice caught in his throat loud enough for George to hear and he had pride seeping from his pores. 

"Oh, did you like that?" Dream, for the first time in a while, was flustered. "I- I wasn't expecting it, that's for sure." Dream didn't know what to do. He was always the one throwing the punches, George was never confident enough to. "Hmmm," 

"I reckon you could pin me down easily as well, you're twice my size." Dream choked on his breath, _where was this side of George coming from?_

"Jesus, George, I don't know if I can handle this sober." Dream tried to laugh it off, but he hated the way the comments made his heart pound and his mind travel different places all at once. George sat thinking for a moment before he stretched his arms above his head, revealing his lower abdomen. 

"Eh, ok then. I'll just leave for bed then," Dream furrowed his brows. "George, that's not what I meant," He was worried he had offended George, that was before George leaned to his mic and whispered one last thing that left Dream begging for more. 

"Keep you waiting until I come to Florida," And he ended the call. 

-

Dream and George never interacted that... _passionately?_ Their flirting was common, but George never made Dream flustered like that. Dream thought back on their interaction from the moment he went to sleep until the moment he woke up. He messaged George in the morning asking how George was. 

_You: how are you feeling this morning?_

_George: fine, how did you know i was high last night?_

Dream panicked, did George not remember he was high on call with Dream last night? Had he not meant the things he said?

_George: kidding ;)_

Dream's heart nearly dropped. He did remember. 

He found himself sitting on the floor of his bathroom thinking about their conversation. He would never talk to Sapnap like that, he knew he and George had a different type of friendship. He couldn't help but wonder if the reason he talked to George this way was that he had romantic feelings for him. But he couldn't be certain that George felt the same, he wouldn't know. 

Not unless he blatantly asked him, which would be mortifying if he didn't feel the same, and it would put a permanent strain on their friendship. But, George did have a dream about him, which made him think that even if George didn't know it, he did have something underneath the surface for Dream. 

Suddenly, Dream's music was interrupted by a call. He stepped one foot out of the shower and looked to his phone,

George was face timing him. 

The 'connecting' button shown for a moment before George's tired face showed on his screen. 

"Good morning, babe." Dream's face reddened and his heart dropped. "I'm only joking, you know." He wished he wasn't. 

"How'd your night go after we spoke?" Dream tried changing the subject quickly, George blushed at the sudden topic change. "Mm, fine. I was so high, I hated it." George laughed at himself. "I did take funny Snapchat's, though, I'll have to show you when I see you." Dream rolled his eyes as he rinsed his hair. 

"Why do you keep saying that? Just text me." George shook his head. "I've got to keep you waiting until I come to Florida, I can't be having you waiting for nothing," Dream blushed. 

"Are you in the shower on the phone with me?" Dream laughed. "Maybe. You called," George scoffed. "You didn't have to answer." Dream shut off the water. "But I did." 

They were silent as Dream dried himself off. It was a peaceful silence, there was no tension. They enjoyed each other's presence even if no words were spoken. 

"You're holding what you look like over my head, I have to hold my feelings over yours." Dream stopped mid-dressing to stare at George's mischievous smile. "What feelings?" His heart pounded so hard he was almost certain George could hear it. 

_"You know what I mean,"_

A smirk crept onto Dream's face as he stared down at George. He grasped his phone in his hand and for a split second considered showing his face just to know if George had feelings for him or not. The feeling of desire burnt inside of him, he could nearly feel the flame set on his heart. He put his phone on the counter and backed away. 

_Not yet._

-

His heel bobbed up and down on the floor in anticipation as he stared at the black and white squares before him. His finger rested on his bottom lip and his brows furrowed as he looked at the pixelated figures. His headset rests on his head comfortably. The breathing on the other side of his call echoed in his ear. 

He had no moves. 

Reluctantly, Dream brushed his mouse over the small purple button. With one click of his pointer finger, he resigned from the game and leaned backward in his chair, exclamations of joy rang in his headset. He shook his head and swiveled his chair around to his bed, where his friend sat spectating his game. All he did was smile at Dream and stand up to leave the room, he gave an approving nod as he exited the door, closing it behind him. 

"I did it! I beat you!" George's giddish laughter filled his ears, a small smile spread across his face. Dream was aggravated, but he was overjoyed at the progress George had made. "Good job, you got me." He stood from his chair to stretch his limbs. "I knew I was done when you opened with the Queen's Gambit, it's an old opening," George laughed. 

"To be honest with you, I was watching the show earlier today and decided to give it a shot, it paid off." Dream laughed. "And so the student becomes the master," Dream trailed off, his call now connected to his phone as he strolled into the kitchen. "Well, not really. I know I'll really be the master when I can beat you playing black." Dream laughed. 

"We should play when you get here, it's only three days from..." Dream looked at his phone clock. "Three days from two hours ago, so less than three days." George giggled. 

The past weeks had been filled with lighthearted flirting between the two, nothing as intense as that night George had been high, as neither of them had been intoxicated since then. Since then, Dream had only thought of George day-in and day-out. 

"Your room is basically ready, you know. The only thing it's missing is you." Dream's voice was sincere, it made George laugh. "You're corny." They had been unclear as to what they were, they never spoke of their deep feelings, nor had they spoken of anything of that sort. They really weren't anything, they flirted occasionally, but there was nothing truly there. 

There were small things that George would do that made him immediately happy. Like, when he would smile such a cheesy smile his eyes crinkled at the ends. Or, when he would try to hold in a laugh and immediately fail, resulting in a laugh that started with 'bah' instead of 'ha'. All the little things that George would do that would make him happy, all of the little messages George would send to let him know he cared. It all meant the world. 

Even if there was no romantic relationship between them, Dream knew he would always have George by his side. He was his partner, whether that be platonic or romantic, that was for them to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be honest with you, I just watched The Queens Gambit on Netflix and was in the chess mood, even if I understand nothing about chess ;) I hope I worded it correctly, if I didn't I apologize. I hope you enjoyed it!


	7. telenovela

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning, slight Jane the Virgin spoilers from episodes one, four, and five of season one HAHA. It's nothing serious though :D

The light flickered above his head as he aimlessly stared at his blank television screen. Channels flew by and none piqued his interest. He changed to his FireTV stick and decided on Netflix, but still could not land on anything to watch. He scrolled through the 'Drama' category and landed on a title with a Latina woman on the cover. 

_Jane the Virgin?_

Curious, he clicked on the first episode and rested the remote at his side. A blank-white screen showed and a type-writer text appeared on the screen. 

_Prologue_

_"Our story begins thirteen and a half years ago, when Jane Gloriana Villanueva was a mere ten years old."_

A Latin-American accented man began speaking, and the narrator began telling the story of our main character, and Dream sunk into his couch cushion, intrigued by the narration-way of storytelling. The show piqued his interest by the title, as it was different than any other he'd seen before. Soon, he was four episodes deep and had gathered Patches and a snack, which rested beside him. His feet were propped on his coffee table and he fell deep into the soft cushions of his white couch. 

A soft tune played as the scene changed from a dark city to Jane laying restlessly in her bed. The narrator began,

_"That night in bed, Jane lay awake, thinking about how she'd been betrayed. Soon, she'd prayed for sleep. But dreams betray, too, remember?"_

Rafael, the main male role, sprung out of bed after being awoken from his dream. Dream's eyes widened as he watched the scene play out, his hand lifting to cover his mouth in shock. 

_"And no one is immune."_

The slow typewriter wrote out "To be Continued..." on the blank white screen, Dream smiled and furrowed his brows. "Rafael had a SEX dream about her? WHAT?" Dream spoke to himself as he pet Patches, who was sat next to him asleep. He went to begin the next episode when he heard his phone vibrate next to him. He reached over and picked it up. 

George's contact shown on his screen. He picked up the phone call, confused as to why George was calling him at five pm. He held the phone to his ear and was met with the sound of loud conversation and rustling in his ear. "George?" 

"DREAM!" George yelled into his phone, Dream pulled the phone away from his ear and winced at the loud noise. "Yes? Why are you calling?" George was completely silent. "Where are you?" George's voice was quiet, but mischievous. "I'm on my couch?" As the words left Dream's mouth the dots connected in his brain and his eyes widened. He sprung up from the couch, startling Patches at the moment, and scrambled for his shoes and a sweater. He placed his phone on the floor near his shoe rack and put George on speaker, who was now laughing from Dream's sudden realization. 

_George flew in today and Dream forgot to pick him up from the airport._

"You actually forgot?" George laughed hard, Dream was sure George had stares shooting at him from the other people in the airport. "I'm leaving right now." He locked his front door and ran for his car, which was parked crookedly in his driveway. 

_Sapnap._

George connected to his car's bluetooth and within seconds Dream was driving towards the airport, borderline speeding. The airport was no more than twenty minutes away, but with traffic, parking, and finding George, he was probably an hour or an hour and a half from seeing George. 

"Well, you have to stay on the phone with me until you get here, I'm not sitting in a foreign airport alone." Dream shook his head. "You are alone, though." George chuckled. 

They talked about random things like how George's flight was, how George would be miserable from jetlag, and other things until Dream arrived at the pick-up-station, where George was standing happily outside with his suitcase and backpack, looking like a little kid. Dream waved outside of his window and unlocked his car. Forgetting George didn't know what he looked like, he put his car in park and got out to help George with his bags. 

Dream's sweaty palms rested at his sides as he approached George, George's eyes following Dream's figure as if his life depended on it. Dream wore his GeorgeNotFound merch so that George would know who he was, and Dream could practically feel his cheeks heat up more and more by the second. 

Dream signaled for George to come over to his trunk, and George smiled. There were aggravated pedestrians crowded near Dream's car, and Dream sped up the process of getting George settled. Soon, George's luggage was loaded into the trunk and the two walked to the front, not having said a word to each other. 

Dream sat in the driver's seat as George opened the rear passenger door. "George," Dream finally spoke, his face gleamed with a smile as he signaled to the front seat, resting his hand near the head of the seat. George stood silent for a moment before an angry middle-aged man yelled. "Get a fucking move on! There are others here!" His voice was low and scratchy, he sounded like he smoked a pack a day. 

George laughed and blushed as he quickly sat in the passenger seat, buckling his seatbelt as Dream pulled away. Dream could see George's face in his peripheral vision, he was bright red. After seconds of awkward silence, the two burst out in laughter from the angry man. 

"What a dick," Dream spoke, George turned his gaze to him. "Hello, Dream." Dream could hear the smile on George's face. He looked to him quickly, now being on the freeway where there weren't as many things to pay attention to. Dream smiled widely. The insecurity of George seeing him for the first time only set in now, and he blushed red. 

_"Hey there, George."_

George's smile was so wide his eyes crinkled at the sides. George was a lot smaller than Dream had pictured him to be. His hands were small. George wore a navy crew neck and black sweatpants. 

George pulled his right leg to his side and rested his knee on the door, his foot touched the inside of his left thigh. Dream looked over again and laughed, making George furrow his brows. "What?" Dream just laughed, his face now red from laughter as George stared at the laughing blonde next to him. 

"You- Your leg." Dream stuttered between laughter. "That's such a girl thing to do." George rolled his eyes and smiled, looking to his window. He began to lower his leg when Dream reached over and grabbed his knee, stopping it from lowering any further. "Keep it, I- I thought it was cute." George's breath caught in his throat when Dream's hand met his thigh. It was unintentionally flirty, and Dream quickly removed his hand as George lifted his leg back up. 

The two sat in peaceful silence listening and humming to music as they both considered what to say next. 

-

He looked the exact same. George really _had_ seen Dream in his dream the other night. He'd never seen a recent picture of Dream either, so he didn't know how he knew exactly what he looked like. But, from the dimple on his left cheek to the light freckles on his nose, it was all the same. His hair still had the soft sheen it had in the dream, his arms and legs were the same as the dream, though his fashion sense could take some notes from dream Dream. 

The sudden touch of his knee sent shivers down his spine, he liked it. He liked being touched. Even if it was a simple grab of the knee, George loved being touched. _Especially_ by Dream. 

Driving on the opposite side of the road in the opposite side of the car was weird, but he felt safe in Dream's driving. He stared out his window at the array of bright trees and hundreds of cars passing by. He felt Dream look at him every few seconds, and he caught himself smiling and catching a glimpse of his friend every few minutes as well. 

"It's pretty here." George finally spoke, pulling Dream from his trance. "It is, but it's hot as fuck." Dream smiled slightly, his smile made George smile. It felt unreal to have his best friend sitting next to him. He was very tall, very attractive, and smelled the same as he did in his dream. George laughed. 

"What?" Dream smiled and spoke through his teeth. "You smell exactly how you did in my dream. Don't ask why I remember." Dream smiled widely, his eyes glowed in the light reflecting off the hood of his car. 

They neared Dream's house and soon they were pulling into the driveway, the tall two-story house towered before him. George got out of the car and walked to the trunk, lifting it to pull out his luggage. He felt arms around him, lifting him from the ground and Dream's heartbeat on his back. "Dream!" George smiled and laughed, moving his arms down to pry Dream off of him. 

"I can't believe you're here, I'm excited." Dream sounded giddy like a kid, and George rolled his eyes. "I'm hungry, what are we doing?" 

-

George's jaw dropped as he chewed his Karl's Grilled Cheese from Mr.Beast Burger. He'd never had anything from Jimmy's restaurant, considering he'd never been in the US. Dream's jaw was dropped just as low as they stared at the TV screen playing Jane The Virgin. George had to catch up to where Dream was, and now they had just finished episode five. 

"She blamed it on Rafael? But- But her mother did it!" George panicked as he shoved a few fries into his mouth. He thought it was weird that Americans called them fries rather than chips, but didn't think much of it after he tasted how amazing they were. 

Sapnap's footsteps came down the stairs, he'd parted ways with them once he got his food, he claimed to be 'working on a video' even though his best friend was sitting in his living room. "I don't understand why you guys like this crap, it's sooooo dramatic." Dream rolled his eyes and looked over the cushion of the couch to Sapnap, who was throwing his dinner trash away. 

"Yeah, that's the point. It's a Telenovela." George was too engulfed in his grilled cheese to add to the conversation. Sapnap scoffed. "I don't even know what that is." Dream laughed as he walked to the kitchen to throw away his trash. 

"It's a Latin soap opera. It's _supposed_ to be dramatic. The episodes end on cliff hangers, the show is crazy and unpredictable, that's what makes it interesting." Dream seemed passionate about his newfound love for the CW show in question. "It's just so... _girly._ " George's eyes shot to Sapnap. 

"Oh yeah? What's that supposed to mean?" George seemed offended and stood next to Dream, who was leaned over on his elbows on the kitchen island. Sapnap quickly dismissed himself from a potentially problematic conversation. 

George yawned and stretched his arms above his head, resulting in his shirt inevitably riding up, exposing his lower abdomen. Dream looked away. Immediately, George's face flushed with tiredness, and his eyes sunk. Dream smiled. "You have a bedroom, you know." Dream motioned to the bedroom across the hall from his own. 

He watched as George tiredly trudged into the bedroom, kicking his shoes and socks off as he entered. He stripped from his sweatshirt and began to tug at the waistband of his sweats before turning around to close his door, remembering Dream was standing behind him in the kitchen. 

He turned and saw Dream's tall, broad figure and stopped to admire for a moment. This was alright, as Dream had his back turned while he washed dishes. His shoulder muscles were visible through his sweatshirt, George's sweatshirt. George melted at the sight. How many times he'd dreamt of Dream wearing his sweatshirt. How many times he'd dreamt of Dream. How many times he'd dreamt of running his hands over Dream's arms and stopping at his waist. 

"George?" Dream's voice snapped George back to reality. He blinked before looking to Dream, who was now stood in front of him, towering over him. George's breath stopped as he looked up to Dream, who was smiling down at him. "You ok?" 

Dream's hot, minty breath brushed just above George's forehead, and he noticed the piece of gum he was chewing. George smiled. "Fine. It all feels," He stopped. "Unreal?" George looked up to meet Dream's eyes. They were emerald green. Though George couldn't tell now, they showed to him now as an ugly brown-green. He remembered them, though. He remembered the first and only time he'd ever seen that color, and the first thing he saw properly was Dream's emerald eyes. 

"You're exhausted, go to sleep." Dream removed himself from the situation. Looking down at George's fragile body in such a vulnerable state made him weak. He wanted nothing more than to reach down to him and hug him, to squeeze him tightly. He wanted to run his fingers through the dark brown locks that fell from his head. Dream was so much taller than George. He towered over him. 

"I should. Good night, Dream." George's voice was soft and quiet, he was clearly jet-lagged. Dream smiled. He began to turn away when he felt George's hand brush against his forearm. He stopped and looked to George, and before he knew it, George was pulling him into a hug. Dream immediately pulled him closer, and his chin rested atop of George's head. They both exhaled slowly, as if they had been waiting for this, because they had. 

"Don't watch anymore without me." George mumbled into Dream's chest, and George felt Dream's laugh blossom from his chest against his ear. "Will do." They pulled away and headed their separate ways. 

-

Dream lied restlessly in his bed. Perhaps it was because he didn't usually go to bed until a later time, but he knew it was because of the man sleeping across the hall from him. 

He remembered the feeling that erupted in his chest when he saw George's short body standing before him at the airport, and how terrified George looked. He remembered how speechless he was. He remembered how his hand grabbed George's knee, and how he wanted to keep it there for the rest of the drive. He remembered George's quiet hums to the beat of the song they listened to. He remembered George's scent of Figi deodorant and expensive cologne. How he wished George wore that scent for him. 

Patches curled beside him and nuzzled her head into his arm, comforting him. He listened to the soft vibrations of her purrs as she outstretched her paws to claw his comforter. Her soft face and big eyes brought him more comfort than he ever knew he needed. He softly stroked her fur and rubbed her belly as he drifted to sleep. Only he wasn't thinking of his cat, he was thinking of how long he had until he broke down to George.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure why we writers like to describe Dream's eye color as green when that picture he posted was clearly more grey-blue than green, but I imagine Dream as Cat Noir from Miraculous, so I guess that's why I do it HAHA. I absolutely LOVE Jane the Virgin on Netflix, it's easily my all-time favorite show, if you haven't yet, I suggest you try and watch it. I'm sorry for the lack of long chapters, I've been having writer's block recently and I can't manage more than 3k words :O I hope you enjoyed it!


	8. round thirteen

_somethings been going on with dream. i've noticed small things that he's been doing differently. he's bipolar with me now. he either stands so close to me i can hear his heartbeat or he won't come within 50 feet. i've been here three days now and it's already different. he doesn't talk to me as much as he had before i came. well, he talks to me, but he doesn't TALK to me. i don't understand why. he's my best friend. there's so much tension between us all the time. it's probably my fault, it's that dumb dream that i had. i hate how attractive he is. i hate how i felt with him in that dream. i hate myself for liking it._

George typed in his phone's notes app. He often did this when he had feelings he needed to express but had no one to express them to. It helped him. He had feelings he didn't know how to express, so he just word vomits in his notes app. 

Suddenly, George's phone was blaring an alarm, synced up with the two other cell phones and multitudes of Apple products throughout the house. Flash flood warning. Great, now he can't leave the house. 

He stood up and looked out his window, it was indeed raining- hard. He groaned and his shoulders shrunk. Once all of the alarms blaring from places in the house stopped, George left his room and was greeted by Dream, who slammed right into him. 

"Good morning." George smiled at the man standing before him, his eyes glossed over George's grin and his face flushed red. "H-Hey." He was flustered. He never got flustered. 

_Did I make him flustered?_

George didn't think much of it after it happened. 

-

The woman had her back turned to the camera, her long, dark-auburn hair falling to the couch. A tall, bald man stood before her holding a laptop, the news article wrote, "Miracle Baby Returned". She grabbed the laptop from the man and skimmed it for a moment before she lowered it to her lap.

_"Let's go after her. Now."_

The woman spoke in a foreign language, and if it weren't for the subtitles, Dream, George, and Sapnap would've had no clue what she was saying. 

_"I could really use some 'it's going to be okay' theme music right about now."_

The screen faded to white after the narrator spoke, and wrote out the inevitable 'To be Continued...' text before the end credits rolled. Just before the next episode played, the tv, as well as every light and kitchen appliance in the house went black. 

_Blackout._

"Oh, God," Sapnap whined as he leaned his head back on the couch. He groaned loudly. "We don't even have FOOD because DREAM forgets to GROCERY SHOP." Sapnap yelled, making George and Dream laugh. 

"Well, what do we do?" Dream looked to the ceiling for a moment before George answered his own question. "We could play cards." Dream and Sapnap laughed. "Cards? What, are you fifty?" George rolled his eyes at Sapnap's comment. "Have you two ever played five crowns?" The two others furrowed their brows at George, and he smiled maliciously. 

One thing about George was how amazing he was at card games, especially Five Crowns. 

"No, but I don't want to play cards." George rolled his eyes and stood to go to his room. "Well, do you have a better idea?" Dream chimed in. Sapnap shook his head as he and Dream reluctantly shuffled to the kitchen table. George practically skipped to his suitcase to pull out the box of cards, considering Five Crowns had its own set of cards and rules. 

"I need paper and a pen, or any writing object for that matter." Dream laughed. "What card game needs a pen and paper?" He grabbed the box of cards and began to shuffle them as Dream fetched a notebook and a piece of paper. "It's to keep score, have you ever played rummy? Or gin rummy?" The two looked at George like he was insane. George ignored them. 

He made a T-chart on the lines of the paper with four columns. The furthest left column was numbered from 3 to 13 going from the top to the bottom. The top of the next three columns had their initials, G for George, S for Sapnap, and D for Dream. Dream was closest to the numbers, meaning he went first. Then Sapnap, then George, as George was the one dealing first. You always deal to your left, one card at a time. 

"Okay," George began as he grabbed 1/4 of the shuffled cards. "The game is split up into eleven rounds, starting with round 1, which is the number three. The card deck doesn't have aces or twos, and there are five suits with two, or three, of each card. So, if you get two green fours it's not abnormal, that's how the deck is." The two nodded in agreement, seeming to understand. "Okay, in the first round you will have three cards, you can look at your cards. The way that you play is we go clockwise beginning with the person to the left of the dealer, which is you, Dream." Dream smiled. 

"You want to try and get a 'run' which is cards in the same suit one after the other. For example, if you have the jack, queen, and king of the star suit, that's a run. But, they have to be one after the other from the same suit, no other way will work. Or, you can have a set, which is the same value card from any suit. So, if I have three queens, no matter what suit, that works. And the aim of the round is to 'go out' which essentially means using all of your cards. The minimum amount of cards for a run or a set is three, so you need to have three cards that qualify for either of those for it to be eligible to be played." 

"So, if I have four fives, no matter which suit they're in, that's a set? And I go out?" George nodded. "Yes, Dream! And once you've used all of your cards, during your turn you place your cards on the table and declare that you're out. Then, after one player declares that they're out, the rest of the players have one more turn to try and go out. Or, if they can't go out, they get points. So, like on round five, you have to have either a run of five cards or a set of five cards, or else you'll gain points from those two cards you didn't use." The two seemed to be grasping the concept well, and he continued. 

"Now, every round you draw a card and you discard a card. You can draw from either deck of cards, either the hidden deck or if you need the card on the deck with the cards upright, you can draw that card. You must start and end every round with the same amount of cards, essentially. And there are wild cards. The wild cards can be used in place of any card you want, so if you need another card to finish a set and you have a wild, you can use the wild to complete it. The jokers are wild's all the time, and the number of the round is the wild card. So for example, this is round 3, because we have three cards, so the three is wild. So if I have a five and a seven of green cards but I have a three, no matter what color it is I can use it in place of the green six." 

"The pen and paper are for writing points down because you'll inevitably gain points. You won't go out every round, so I add the value of the points together every round, and at the end of the game whoever has the least amount of points wins!" George was so enthusiastic about the game, and Sapnap and Dream seemed genuinely interested. "Ok, we'll play as many rounds as you need to understand, so we'll play with our cards face up so I can help you all out. Are you guys ready?" The two nodded. The game began, George was swift with the dealing of cards, and Dream watched his quick handwork mesmerized. 

Each of them began with three cards and played the first round smoothly. George helped all three of them go out the first and second round, and now they were on round five, the hardest round considering you can't make two sets of three with five, and Sapnap was close to going out. Unfortunately for Dream, he put down a red five, the wild card of the round, and Sapnap yelled in triumph as he picked up the card and replaced his card with the wild, completing his set. 

"Eat that BITCH. I'm out!" Sapnap slammed his cards on the table as Dream leaned back in disappointment. "Shit, I didn't even remember that was the wild card for this round, I thought it was still four." Sapnap laughed as he eagerly waited for George to write down his score, still a 0 even after three rounds. "That's the thing with this game, many people, even I, forget what round it is and fuck up the whole round for ourselves. It sucks." George remarked. Sapnap looked to Dream and smiled. 

"So, you're saying I could potentially distract you enough to the point that you drop a wild by accident?" Sapnap questioned, and George rolled his eyes as he put down his green four, him going out as well. "Well, maybe, but it wouldn't benefit you, it would benefit Dream since he's next after me." Dream's eyebrows raised. He could distract George, he knew he could. Sapnap groaned. 

Dream stared down at his cards. He had a red three, a green six, a green four, a blue king, and a yellow seven. There was no way he was going out, if he was being honest with himself, George's concentration had distracted him too much. He could get a run if he got a wild or a green five, which would be a wild anyway, but it would look neat. He reached for the hidden cards and pulled a yellow five. He gleamed with happiness as George and Sapnap watched him. He placed the wild between his green cards and discarded his yellow seven, leaving himself with a run and two other unmatched cards. 

George inhaled sharply through his teeth and Sapnap laughed. "You're a dumbass. Why would you do that?" Dream was confused, and George looked at him with pity. "You put down your seven instead of your king, the king is worth thirteen points and the seven is only worth seven, you should've gotten rid of your highest card. It's ok, since it's your first game I'll let you reverse it," George reached for the deck and began to swap Dream's seven for his king, but Dream stopped him. He put his hand on top of George's, making them stop in their tracks and stare at their conjoined hands. 

"No, I'm not cheating." The two laughed at the comment, considering Dream's... reputation. "Thank God there's no hacking clients for five crowns." Sapnap practically collapsed laughing at his own joke, nearly falling off of his chair. "That's a tweet, that's a tweet!" He pulled out his phone. Soon, the two others received a Twitter notification. 

**sapnap** _@sapnapalt:_ thank god there's no hacking clients for five crowns  
7.3K REPLIES / 4.7K RTS / 170K LIKES 

"You're so dumb." Dream giggled as he removed his hand from George's, the tense moment fading away. Dream only had 16 points, but the others had none. "Ok, ok, I get the game now. Let's REALLY play this game, I want to beat George at his own game." Dream's challenging words piqued George's competitive side, a side that didn't come out very often. 

Soon, they were on the last round, round thirteen (or Kings), and they were all close in score. Sapnap had 89 points, George had 80 and Dream had 94. Dream was one wild card away from going out, securing his score of 94. If he could go out this early in the round, probably turn two or three, that would give him an advantage and maybe get him second place. He knew Sapnap wasn't doing well, and George was too stone-faced for him to know. 

_"So, you're saying I could potentially distract you enough to the point that you drop a wild by accident?"_

Sapnap's words rang in his head, and he thought he'd give it a shot. It was easy for Dream to distract George. Dream took his turn, and as Sapnap stared at his cards, Dream slowly inched his hand onto George's thigh, George's leg twitching. George's eyes widened and he looked away from his cards to Dream, who was close to him and staring at his eyes. 

"What are you doing?" George mouthed and Dream smiled. He wasn't telling him what he was doing, not now. Sapnap didn't notice, as he was too frustrated with his 'shitty hand' to pay attention to them. George's face was beet red and his knee started to inch away from Dream's hand, trying to remove it. But, as George moved his knee away, Dream grasped it and pulled it closer to him, George gasping at the movement. This caused Sapnap to stare at them as he put his card in the discard pile. He was confused but told George to take his turn. 

"Whatcha doing, Georgie." Dream's voice was low, almost a whisper, and it made George's heart race. What was Dream doing?

"I'm- I'm organizing my cards." George's voice was unsteady, he didn't know what to do with himself. Dream's grasp on his thigh, his low voice, the constant tension, Dream staring at him constantly, it was all too much. "I can help you organize your cards." Dream's voice was low, it was seductive. George didn't know what he was doing. George's face was still bright red. He fumbled with his cards, his hands shaking from his high heart rate and he picked up his highest card, trying to get rid of points. As the green king left his fingertips he gasped. 

Dream's face lit up and he nearly screamed. He slowly rubbed his hand from the inside to the outside of George's thigh, he patted his leg before removing his hand completely. "Thanks, George." His voice was raspy, George was mad at himself. 

Dream picked up the king and placed it between two cards, discarding a red three before laying his cards on the table and folding his arms. "I'm out."

Sapnap groaned and put his head face-down on the table, the defeat settling into his chest. George sat in shock. Dream used his feelings towards him as a weapon. George just sat and stared at Dream's mischievous face. 

Sapnap picked up his deck and grabbed the red three, going for lower points. Dream curiously lifted the corner of the hidden deck and looked to the card. A red seven. Sapnap chose the better card. Sapnap placed his cards down. He had two sets of four cards. The other five cards were loose, and all high. Yikes. 

George stared at his cards. He didn't have much he could do. If he drew a red seven or a wild he would finish. But, Sapnap put down a black eight, which would add to his set of eights and get him fewer points. He wasn't sure what to do. There was no guarantee the hidden card would be an eight or a red seven, but he knew if he gambled and it paid off he could still clutch the first-place win. He chose the eight. He put down a queen and was left with a red jack and a blue six. He put down his deck and looked at the others. Dream had 0, solidifying his score of 94. Sapnap had 25, making his score 114. And George had 17 points, putting him just behind Dream at 97 points. Dream was in first place with 94, George in second with 97, and Sapnap in last with 114. 

George wrote the final scores in the last column, circling Dream's score and writing '1st' underneath it, doing the same for him and Sapnap. Dream gleamed as he looked at the score sheet. "I did it! I beat George!" As the words left his mouth, the kitchen chandelier lit up the room, as well as every electronic in the house bursting to life. 

George stood to stretch his limbs, as well as Sapnap and Dream. Dream grabbed George and pulled him into a tight hug, pulling him close to him. 

_"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to tease you."_

Dream's whispers sent shivers down George's spine, and all he did was manage out a half-assed laugh. Tease him? That’s all George is to him? Just something to tease? Sapnap yawned and reached his arms behind his head.

“I’m hungry, what are we eating boys?” Dream sat for a moment looking at George in his peripheral vision. The look spread across his face was concerning; Dream knew something was wrong, something more than Dream beating him at a game of cards. 

“We could get Moe’s?” Dream suggested, George was heavily focused on shuffling his cards even though they weren’t playing another round. “I’m down. Let’s go, delivery won’t be open since the roads just opened. I can drive.” Sapnap began to stand up and grab his things. Dream stayed at the table with George, who was now shuffling the same half of the deck for the fifth time.

Dream stood up and met Sapnap at the front door. George was still seated. “George?” Dream’s tone was concerned, but George continued to stare at the table. “I’m not hungry. I’m g-gonna shower and go to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.” George packed his cards into their box and headed for his room. Dream grabbed his wrist and stopped him from continuing. “George,” 

George stopped and looked to Dream, who was looking down at him. “Goodnight.” George tore himself from Dream’s grip and fled to his room, shutting the door behind him.

Dream stood for a moment staring at George’s blank door. He wanted nothing more than to go in there and find out what the hell happened and how he could make it better, but he knew George needed his time alone. He backed away from the door and followed Sapnap to the car, a trail of awkward silence following them close behind.

-

George didn’t even know he’d shed a tear before he heard himself sniffle over the sound of the water hitting his back. The water was hotter than comfortable, but George didn’t care. He needed to get out of there. He wasn’t tired, and he was very hungry. He’d lied, but didn’t want to be there any longer. 

He hadn’t known what he was expecting, really. He didn’t think Dream would ever have feelings for him back, but there was a small portion of himself that hoped he would. And the worst part was that he knew how George felt. He knew how George felt about Dream, and that’s why he manipulated his feelings during round thirteen. 

His heart ached. He wanted to go home and sleep in his own bed. He wanted to cry into the slightly-too-firm pillow he’d slept with since he was fourteen. He wanted to wrap his left leg around the bunched up comforter and indulge in its warmth. He wanted to go outside and feel the piercing-cold air touch his shoulders and send chills down his back. He wanted to be able to walk across the street and be at his favorite café. He wanted to turn on his PC and stream to his adoring fans. He wanted to speak to his friends. 

The sweatpants didn’t feel the same. The hoodie didn’t feel the same. His socks didn’t feel the same. The carpet wasn’t the same. The mattress wasn’t firm enough. The comforter wasn’t thick enough. The pillow was too squishy. The headboard wasn’t loud and creaky enough. The ceiling fan wasn’t dusty enough. None of it was how it used to be. He, Sapnap’s, and Dream’s friendship wasn’t the same. They hadn’t come close to having the same kind of ‘feral energy’ as they had before. He felt like he had roommates. He didn’t feel like he was living with his best friends, he felt like he was living with his friend and their friend he was secretly in love with. 

He threw his hood over his head and lied in bed, shutting off his light on the way. He could hear Cat meowing for attention, and he brought her to his side and cuddled with her. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck and buried her body beside his. The tears continued to fall. He was silent, he had his moments in the shower without needing to be quiet, but now there was danger of the others hearing. 

He scrolled through Twitter and saw the numerous amounts of tweets asking for George to stream. He didn’t want to disappoint his fans. He couldn’t stream now, not with the mental state he was in, but he wanted to soon. It was only eleven PM EST, but he was still used to his previous sleep schedule. 

Eventually, he fell asleep. He wasn’t cold enough, in fact, he was too hot. He had always fallen asleep with the slight cold brushing against his skin, comforting him. Even Cat was more buried in his warmth than normal, it wasn’t normal for them to be warm while sleeping. 

The tears dried onto his face and cracked whenever he moved the muscles on his face. Cat licked them off, but there were too many to keep up with. He fell asleep with the vibrations of Dream’s messages against his nightstand.

-

Dream was trying to be as normal as possible throughout their drive, but the look on George’s face was permanently engraved in his head. There was no way George was that hurt by the card game, he was hurt that Dream fake-flirted with him. He felt like shit. He _wasn’t_ fake flirting, he was plain flirting. He knew he shouldn’t have done that. If he were George in this situation, he would’ve felt betrayed and taken advantage of. He blew George’s phone up, and he wasn’t replying.

**You:** what happened? I know you’re hungry and there’s no way in hell you’re tired, it’s like three am your time.

**You:** george please. i’m sorry for whatever i did. 

**You:** george you don’t have to talk to me but please tell me you’re ok. i left you in a vulnerable state, i’m worried. 

No response. Not even a read receipt. 

He walked in the house and immediately b-lined to George’s door. He knocked lightly and waited for a response. “George? Can I come in?” No response. “George if you don’t respond right now I’m coming in.” No response. He slowly turned the doorknob into the dark room. The light from the kitchen illuminated the room slightly, showing George’s small body curled on the left side of his bed, Cat resting by his side. Dream exhaled. He was safe.

He walked closer and looked at George. He was snoring quietly, maybe he was tired. His face was flushed and there were dried tears on his cheeks, seemingly halfway licked off by Cat. Dream’s heart sank. 

_Did I do that?_

He knelt and used every muscle in his body to refrain from rubbing his cheek, knowing Sapnap was in the next room over. He wanted to cry knowing George had been crying. His hair was soaking wet, he must’ve taken a shower. Dream’s chest grew heavier; he knew if he spent another moment looking at George’s broken face he would’ve started crying himself. 

He quietly left the room, shutting the door behind him. He met Sapnap at the kitchen table, his chest still heavy. 

He fell asleep that night still thinking of George. Patches slept with Sapnap that night, leaving Dream completely alone with his thoughts. Rain tapped against his window as he shuffled from side to side. He wanted to hug George and tell him he loved him. Whether that be platonic or romantic, it didn’t matter. 

And that night, he fell asleep. It was alright, though, because they had fun together the night before. But he was quite angry, he missed him. He tried to lower his energy levels to the point of sleep he thought he earned. Nevertheless, the rain tapped his window and the clouds came out and he still wasn’t asleep. He shuffled to the cold side of the bed, wishing he was there beside him. He flipped his pillow to the cool side and hoped like a sad kid that he’d be there the next day with him. But the sun fell through his window and over the empty bed where he was absent. He was nowhere to be found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, chat listen, I'm really proud of this chapter. also, the card game mentioned is a real card game and IMO it's the best card game in existence. it's actually so fun & competitive lol. I hope you enjoyed it! I really liked the addition of George's little journaling, I think it's cute and gives you all more intel onto how George is feeling :p


	9. strange

_it hurts to see. i want to go home. i shouldn’t have come here in the first place. there’s no situation that i could just hop onto a plane and go home without it seeming suspicious. i don’t want to see him, i want to be alone. i can’t drive here, i can barely drive in england let alone here. i’d have to lock myself in my room. gosh and sapnap will ask questions as well. god was on my side yesterday and i managed to sleep the entire day. dream tried to come in and see me during the day, but i told him i was sick. he didn’t believe me._

George closed his phone and lied in bed, staring at the ceiling. Cat was clawing at the door, she didn’t want to be in there another day. George dreaded seeing Dream, but he knew he would have to. They were living in the same house, after all. He stood and put his sweatshirt on, being unable to sleep in it the night before from the heat. 

He unlocked his door and let Cat out, she zoomed to Patches who was sitting on the couch next to Sapnap. Sapnap looked up to George and smiled, standing to walk to him. “George! Are you feeling better?” George smiled, he wished Sapnap wasn’t dragged into their drama. “Yeah, I still have a headache though,” He lied. George walked and opened the refrigerator, being met with a single apple and a half-drank carton of milk. He sighed, his stomach growling with him. 

“Let’s get breakfast, Dream won’t be awake for a while. We can get breakfast then go grocery shopping since Dream won’t.” Sapnap motioned to the door, the outside sounded amazing. From being locked inside with Dream two days ago to being locked in his room yesterday, fresh air sounded great. George agreed and left to get ready to leave. Jeans sounded like torture, so he left on the joggers he’d been wearing the past week. Joggers would add to the facade of him being sick. 

He and Sapnap got breakfast at a smaller diner near their house, it was small and family-owned, very cozy and welcoming. America’s waffles were extremely sugary, which was different from the UK’s waffles, which were usually savory and made of potatoes. Sapnap seemed very fond of a certain waitress, who seemed to linger around their table talking, mostly to Sapnap. She left after bringing their food and George looked at Sapnap smiling. 

“Who’s that?” He couldn’t help but grin as he spread copious amounts of butter on his pancakes. Sapnap blushed as he cut into his waffle full of chocolate chips and whipped cream. He drowned them in syrup before he cut them, the poor waffles growing soggier by the second. “N-No one.” George laughed. “Just tell me, I won’t snitch.” Sapnap’s mouth was full of waffle as George spoke, he rolled his eyes at George as he watched him spread a pack of butter onto each pancake. “Dude, do you want pancake with your butter?” George scoffed. “I dunno, do you want some waffle with your syrup?” Sapnap giggled as he flipped off George. “She’s a waitress,” George rolled his eyes. “Well no shit, Sapnap, I mean what’s her name.” 

“Her name is on her nametag.” George had enough with Sapnap dancing around the question. He knew he liked her. “Hmm, fine. I’ll just ask her myself after I ask how many times you’ve been here in the last week,” Sapnap slammed his fist on the table, catching George’s attention before he called for the waitress, who was brewing a pot of coffee behind the counter. He smirked at Sapnap, who rolled his eyes before answering. 

“Her name is Natalie. She’s the owner's granddaughter. She and I talk when I come in here.” George couldn’t help but smile at his friend crushing on someone. “She’s pretty, seems nice, but I couldn’t tell through the blatant flirting between you two,” Sapnap nearly choked on his waffle. “What?” George shook his head as he sipped his coffee. They changed the subject after that. 

He and Sapnap laughed and talked about anything and everything as they ate their food. They finished their food but still talked for ten minutes before getting the check, they hadn’t spoken in a minute. They FaceTimed Karl and Alex, who talked to them about doing a stream that night. They all agreed to play Jackbox on Alex’s stream and then ‘pop off’ on George’s. It wasn’t planned out for sure, but Alex had already tweeted about it before they were off the phone. George hadn’t realized how long it had been since he had spoken to Karl and Alex. The four of them had been inseparable for weeks on end, and had all built a special bond. 

“Boys, we should all meet up IRL to do a stream this week. I can fly Alex out here again and you and the Gogmeister can drive. It’s a nine-hour drive, but you can keep each other awake and do it in one night, it’ll be fun.” Karl was ecstatic, he was the planner of the group, he was always putting their streams and events together. George and Sapnap’s first instincts were to say no, but they thought about it, and there was no logical reason why they couldn’t go. 

“How long will we stay? Are we staying at your house?” 

The plans had been made by the time they left the restaurant. George and Sapnap would drive to Karl’s in two days, beginning in the morning so they could all stream together that night. Alex would fly out the same day and fly in around five PM, just before Sapnap and George got there. They’d all stay at Karl’s, seeing as he had three spare bedrooms since his brother moved out. There was only one undetermined factor,

“What about Dream?” The words made George’s shoulders fall. He’d been so happy not thinking about him. “He can come if he wants to, but one of you would need to share a room with him, since I only have three extra rooms.” All at once, they all three looked at George. George scoffed. “Why do I have to share with him? Sapnap’s been the one living with him for months!” He was oddly defensive. “And now you are. We don’t even know if he wants to go. If he does, we’ll figure it out. But if he doesn’t, then there’s nothing to worry about. Let’s get one thing situated before the next. Whether or not he goes, Gog and I are coming on Wednesday, end of story. We’ll leave in the morning and be there at night, probably five or six so we can all stream. George and I need to buy the pissbaby’s groceries so we need to go, but we’ll text you.” The others nodded and said their goodbye’s and they hung up the phone. 

“What’s going on between you and Dream? Was it what happened during the game?” George sighed as he connected his phone to the aux cord. “I didn’t want to drag you into this, you know,” He rubbed his temples as he hummed to the rhythm of the song. “So there is something going on?” George sighed. 

“A little bit. He just made some comments before I came that made it seem like nothing would change when I got here. And ever since I’ve been here it’s been weird. He’s acting all strange. First, he lifts me up and spins me around like a fucking kid when I got home from the airport, but then acts stand-offish. He’s just being weird. He makes me not even want to be here if it’s going to feel like I'm living with a roommate I hate.”

“I don’t even feel like I’m living with my best friend, I feel like I’m living with a university roommate.” George was telling the truth, maybe not the whole truth, but he wasn’t lying when he said those things. “I’ve noticed too, he’s been weird around you. I’m sorry, George, I never wanted it to be like this.” Sapnap seemed genuinely sad, which wasn’t a normal Sapnap emotion. George felt better. “This is why I don’t want to share with him if we do go to Karl’s, as a matter of fact, I really don’t even want him to go. I feel like maybe if I just don’t see him for a few days it’ll remind me of why I came in the first place and I’ll feel better coming back.” Sapnap nodded.

-

The cart was overflowing with sugary snacks and unhealthy food. There was the occasional carton of eggs or package of chicken breast for dinner, but most of it was frozen and sugary. But it didn’t matter, what mattered was that George was having fun buying shitty food with his best friend while they walked around a grocery store like a couple of teenagers. They bought extra food for their drive, compensating extra in case Dream tagged along. They bought cans of soda for the mini fridges in their rooms and bags of ice, since the ice maker couldn’t keep up with all three of their drinking addictions. 

They checked out and their total was over four hundred dollars, they decided to use their conjoined ‘house card’ that they all deposited money into for the house. The rent came from that card as well as the groceries and other necessities they’d need for the house. They loaded the groceries into the trunk of Sapnap’s car and drove home, blaring music from the speakers and terribly singing along. George was happy. Sapnap was happy. Everything was well and this was the first time George was happy to be going back to the house. He wanted to stream Gang Beasts with the boys, as they had planned earlier in the diner. 

They took many trips to load the tens of pounds of food into the house, George slowly unloaded the groceries as Sapnap carried the groceries inside from the garage. Dream approached George as Sapnap used the bathroom. He helped him put away the groceries in silence until he couldn’t handle it. Dream inched closer to George and pulled him towards him by the wrist, their breaths touching. 

“What did I do wrong?” His face was low and sad, George’s heart broke seeing him that way. “Dream, it’s fine. I’m over it. Let’s not ruin a good time.” George headed for another bag of groceries when Dream pulled him again. “I’m not having a good time, George. I’ve felt like shit since the blackout.” George sighed. 

He confessed what he’d confessed to Sapnap in the car earlier. He left out the bit where he was possibly in love with Dream, as he didn’t want to have that conversation now. But he explained how he’d been feeling about the house situation and how their friendship wasn’t the same. 

_It’s not the same because I’m in love with you._

Dream’s face softened as he pulled George into a hug, he hugged him for what felt like hours. Dream stroked the back of his head softly as he whispered to George. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I’ve been off, I-” He paused. “I didn’t want to bring you into my personal drama. I love you, George. You’re my best friend and I’m sorry I’ve put a strain on us.” Hearing Dream refer to them as ‘us’ made George’s heart flutter, and he hated it. He wanted to love Dream the way Dream loved him. But he couldn’t, at least not until he got over his feelings. Neither of them wanted to, but they pulled out of the hug shortly after Dream apologized. 

“Why the hell did you idiots buy so much food?” Dream laughed at the tens of bags of food, most of it being sugary. George laughed. “Well, this is a good time to tell you.” Sapnap spoke as he left the bathroom. He was eavesdropping on their conversation, but they didn’t need to know that. “George, Karl, Quackity and I are going to stay at Karl’s from Wednesday on. We don’t have for sure dates for when we’re coming back home, but we’re all going on Wednesday and staying at Karl’s. You’re invited, but there’s only three extra rooms. So, some of us would have to share or sleep on the couch. We’re driving there Wednesday morning around eight or nine.” Dream’s face lit up. “I want to go! But you guys will stream, right? So I can’t be on them?” His face fell.

“Well, no. You can be in VC, the four of us will probably be in one room, but you can VC us from another room. We’ll just play games you can play on a computer. It’s doable, and we won’t just be streaming, we can get food and watch movies at home.” Dream smiled. “Then yes, I’d love to go. But I’m not driving the whole way, you guys need to switch off with me.” George scoffed. “I can’t drive here, so it’ll be you two switching halfway through.” Sapnap laughed. “You’ve got me fucked up if you think I’m not teaching you how to drive in America before we leave, I’m not driving for four and a half hours.” 

Later that day, Sapnap and Dream took George driving. It took him a little while, but he eventually got the hang of driving in America and was confident enough to drive. He drove them to get food and did great, but asked to take the middle shift, meaning he’d drive in the part of the day the roads were emptiest. They agreed since he was the worst driver of the three, and they spent the night watching Jane the Virgin together. 

-

“I’m out, whores.” Sapnap threw his cards on the table as he wrote down his score on the scoresheet, George ripping it out of his hands before he could write anything else. They were on round four of Five Crowns, so seven’s were wild. George had a good hand, and was still in first place with only fourteen points. He picked up a three to complete his set, discarding a four he’d been holding, gaining no points. Sapnap groaned. 

Dream stared at his hand. He didn’t know what to do, and was confused. “Aww do you need me to help you, Dweam?” Sapnap teased. Dream flipped off the man across from him and lowered his cards. With one swift glance at his cards, George helped. “Pick up the four I dropped and drop your eight, you’ll have a straight with five points leftover.” George wasn’t even looking at Dream’s cards when he looked to his right, he was shuffling his and Sapnap’s cards out of boredom. 

Dream glanced at his cards as he tried to understand what George was saying. He saw the pattern George was talking about, but had no clue how he saw it in the few seconds he looked at the cards. He would’ve never found it. “How did you see that?” Dream followed his instructions and dropped his cards on the table, a straight and five left over, just as George said. “No fair! George helped you!” Sapnap whined, glaring at Dream. 

“The points I saved him won’t really help him, he’s already almost at eighty points and you and I are under thirty,” George was speaking so casually, as if being abnormally fast at this game was common. George took a quick look at Dream’s hand before he looked back to the score-sheet. “Hmm, you could’ve gone out.” He added five points to Dream’s score, making it seventy-seven, as Dream laughed. “How?” 

George picked up Dream’s hand and held it in his, “If you kept the eight here, you actually could’ve put the eight with these two and left your wild with these three, dropping the five. You’d have no points, I didn’t look at your hand long enough to see it.” Dream was astonished, and Sapnap was still pouting. “How does your brain even work that fast, I never would’ve seen either of those.” George chuckled as he handed the shuffled cards to Dream for him to deal. “I know, that’s why you’re at seventy-seven points on round five.”

George won, Sapnap in second and Dream in last. Dream couldn’t stop admiring George for his smarts, he was extremely quick with his thinking, he could see why he liked this game so much. It was a very George-esque game. 

He knew what George was talking about earlier that day. There _was_ something going on with him. He was slowly falling more in love with George as the days passed, and he felt George growing further away from him. George wasn’t wrong about any of it. 

Dream needed to express his feelings, he didn’t know how. He grabbed the first thing near him, a notebook and a pen. 

_george, like the stars, our love is consistent. we’re always moving, constantly changing, yet we stay consistent. it’s hurtful and formless. but then we have our good days, too. we have the days that feel perfect, those are the days i’m more in love with you than ever. the thing about these days, though, is that they’re the best but they hurt the worst. at night when the sun is setting and the stars come out, we grow further apart. i can’t resist you. when today turns into yesterday and tomorrow turns into today, i’ll hurt more than before. we break and crash together, we won’t be the same pair we once were. i damage myself to keep you from hurting. we laugh, and scream, and experience pain and happiness together. soon, when the sun sets and our hearts open enough for the other, we will find our happiness together. we will find our happy ending._


	10. i see you

_he’s normal, at least for now. he’s still a little bit off, though. i hate what he did to me, and i can feel my emotions filling inside of me like boiling water ready to overflow. i feel it festering like a wound, begging for an infection. i hate the way his laugh makes butterflies erupt in my stomach. i hate that the places he touches me tingle afterwards. i hate the way i get insecure when he looks at me. i hate that i know i don’t only see him as a friend. hell, maybe i’m the one being weird and making things weird. maybe i’m the one causing these problems. of course i am. i’m the one that has romantic feelings for my best friend, who is painfully straight. i hear the way he and sapnap talk about girls, i just have to act like i agree with what they’re saying. don’t get me wrong, women are beautiful, but i’ve never felt this way about a woman, the way i feel about dream._

“Whatcha doin?” George immediately shut off his phone and looked up at who was talking to him. Dream’s eyes met his in the rear-view mirror and George held his breath. “Uhh, nothing.” Great, George, you’re not being weird at all. Dream furrowed his brows. “You’ve been quiet the whole drive. You ok?” They had been in the car for nearly three hours on the way to Karl’s house. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He lied. He wasn’t fine. He was in love with the straight man driving the vehicle he was in. He was not fine. 

Dream knew he wasn’t fine, but knew he wouldn’t say anything with Sapnap sitting next to them. He gave a knowing look to the camera and sighed, giving up. “Okay, you know you can tell me if something ever is wrong, right?” His tone was endearing. “Me too!” Sapnap chimed in, peeling his eyes from his phone and looking back to George, who grinned at the both of them. “Yeah, I know.” 

-

George’s foot rested on the right pedal of the car. He barely had to steer at all, seeing as they were on an empty, flat road in the middle of nowhere. They listened to songs and laughed at Sapnap’s dumb jokes. He tried not to pay attention, but he couldn’t help but notice Dream’s eyes on him. Dream requested the passenger seat since he’d been driving and Sapnap had it while he was driving, and now George and Dream were catching each other’s looks every few seconds.

_Tell him. He feels the same way. You guys love each other, flirting can’t mean nothing to him. You guys love each other, just admit how you feel._

_No! Don’t tell him! He’s straight, he was in a relationship with a woman! He loved her, he’s not gay. He would’ve said something telling by now if he was._

_But he got butthurt when you teased him while you were playing five crowns! He was obviously hurt that you weren’t being for-real, he loves you!_

_Maybe he loves you, but not the way that you want him to. He loves you platonically. Which is the way that you should love him, as friends. If you tell him you’ll complicate your guys’ friendship and it’ll be awkward for everyone._

_But that hug they shared. It was so intimate. The way that George fit perfectly in Dream’s arms can’t be a coincidence! George gets flustered around him!_

The voices in Dream’s head were fighting. He felt as if he had an angel and a devil sitting atop both of his shoulders talking to both ears. He was completely torn over what to do. He couldn’t stop looking at George, who was clearly nervous to be driving, even if the road had one other car for miles. He was so cute when he was nervous, he gets all quiet and concentrated. 

Stop. He’s your best friend. 

“Can we talk? The playlist has already played twice all the way through.” Sapnap asked, filling the awkward silence in the car. George didn’t peel his eyes from the road, but replied, “Yeah, what should we talk about, though?” There was a few moments of silence before Sapnap jokingly replied, 

“Why don’t we talk about the fact that you guys are in love with each other?” The remark made George whip his head back at Sapnap, who was laughing hard at their reactions. George and Dream bumped heads as they both whipped their heads back to look at Sapnap. “What?” George asked, his heart rate rising to unhealthy levels. 

“I’m joking, jeez the DNF jokes have really gotten to your guys’ heads, haven’t they?” Dream and George looked away and slowly back to what they were doing before. George had his eyes locked on the road ahead. He was breathing heavily at the sudden joke. But was it a joke? 

“Jeez, Sapnap, don’t talk like that offline.” George’s heart shattered into a million pieces. Dream’s tone was soft and light-hearted, but it solidified the question of whether or not Dream felt the same way. George’s knuckles were white from how hard he gripped onto the steering wheel. Sapnap laughed quietly before the silence settled again. 

Quackity’s call came in at just the right moment, and George didn’t hesitate to answer the car with the steering wheel’s button. The call answered on Bluetooth, as Sapnap’s phone was still connected when he got the call. 

“Big Q!” George yelled, he was doing anything and everything to keep himself from crying over Dream’s statement. 

“Eyyyy, Jorje, how’s it going, man?” Alex said in his ‘Mexican Dream’ voice, making the three in the car laugh. “Are you at the airport?” George asked, his heart still broken inside of his chest. “Yeah, I’m about to board, I just wanted to ask how far you guys were.” He sounded tired, he’d probably been there for hours. “We’re still a good five hours away, we’ve been driving for three and a half hours, George just started his driving shift.” Sapnap replied. Dream was silent. “Georgie is driving? The brit is driving? Send me a picture before I board, I need to see this,” He was excited, and Sapnap leaned between the seats and took a picture of George driving. 

He had his left leg bent upwards propped on the door with his right leg controlling the car. He flipped Sapnap off as he took the picture, rolling his eyes as Sapnap laughed. Soon, Alex was laughing on the other end. They weren’t going to post about it until they were all five together, but Alex kept the photo for blackmail. 

“George, why do you drive like a girl?” Alex teased, and Sapnap laughed. Dream was still quietly looking out the window. “Fuck off,” Sapnap and George talked to Alex until he boarded, the awkward silence setting in once again. Sapnap restarted his playlist, there was clearly something wrong with Dream. He was quiet and not engaging in the conversations. 

**Nick:** you good? was it the comment i made about you and george? 

Dream read the message on his phone and replied plainly. 

**You:** i’m fine. just car sick. 

**Nick:** bullshit. you don’t get car sick, i know you don’t. tell me what’s wrong, i won’t snitch. 

**You:** maybe later 

He didn’t bother replying to Sapnap’s next text, which was just him begging Dream to tell him what was wrong. The truth? He felt awful about what he said. He loved George. He wanted George to know he loved him, and blatantly telling Sapnap to not make DNF jokes offline was NOT the way of doing it. 

The drive was long and painful, Sapnap didn’t stop nagging him until it was his turn to drive. George tried to let Dream keep the front seat, as George was smaller and fit more comfortably in the back, but Dream just shook his head and climbed in the back seat. 

George kept looking back at Dream during the drive. He wanted to sit next to him and play with his hair. He wanted to hold his hand and draw circles on the back of it with his thumb. He wanted him to know how much he loved him, and _how_ he loved him. He loved him more than a friend. He never looked back at him. He wanted to text him and ask what was wrong, but the shattered pieces of his heart from Dream’s comment kept him from doing it, he just sighed and drowned in his emotions.

-

At five, they finally arrived. They were within five minutes of Karl’s house, but Karl was still getting Alex from the airport, so they needed to find something to do. They suggested getting food, but Karl specifically said he wanted to get Beast Burger for them from the original restaurant the night they got there, so they couldn’t do that. 

Karl was on his way back with Alex and there wasn’t time for much else, so they just sat in the car and waited in a random Target parking lot. Sapnap left to go to the bathroom, which left Dream and George. George sat restlessly in the front seat for a few minutes before getting out of the car and sitting next to Dream, who scooted away from him. 

“What’s going on?” George snapped, Dream closed his eyes. “George, please,” 

_George, I’m in love with you and trying to keep myself off of you._

“Please what, Dream? Please let you sit here like a sad kid? No! You’re my best friend and I can tell somethings wrong.” George scanned Dream’s face for anything that would give him intel on what’s happening. He noticed Dream’s hand balled into a fist, his knuckles whitening. 

“Dream…” His tone softened. Dream looked like he was on the verge of tears. He instinctively grabbed his hand and squeezed it in his. 

Dream’s heart was beating a million miles per minute. His vision was blurred and his breathing quickened. He noticed his breathing becoming heavier and faster, he felt like he was drowning. 

George noticed Dream’s sudden change of emotion and he pulled his head to his chest immediately. He panicked. Dream was hyperventilating. 

_He was having a panic attack._

Dream was laying away from George in his lap, the back of his head rested on George’s chest and he held George’s hands in his. He couldn’t breathe. 

“Name five things you can see.” George’s tone was soft but assertive. Dream could barely make out the words he heard. Tears were forming in his eyes. “Dream,” He pulled his right hand from Dream’s and put it on the side of cheek, pulling Dream’s face to look at him. “Name five things you see right now. Just five things.” Dream could barely breathe, but he replied. 

“I- I see your eyes.” He barely whispered. “Good, what’s another thing you see?” George’s tone was soft and kind, it brought Dream down enough to being able to breathe better. “I see your hair.” George smiled. “Good, now what’s another thing?” Dream could hear clearer. “I see your smile. And I see your nose.” George’s hand was now in Dream’s hair. “One more thing you can see.” Dream’s breathing calmed, but was still rapid and loud. “I see you. All of you.” George smiled again. 

“Four things you can touch.” Dream closed his eyes. “I can touch your hand, and the car seat, an- and your leg, and your arm.” Dream had his hand wrapped around George’s forearm. “Good, now three things you hear.” Dream opened his eyes. 

“I hear your voice. And- and I hear car sirens. And I hear your heartbeat.” George smiled. “Now two things you can smell.” Dream closed his eyes and squeezed George’s hand, his breathing slowing. “I smell the car air fresheners, and I smell you, you smell like vanilla. And oak.” George squeezed his hand back. 

“One thing you can taste.” Dream was breathing normally, and sighed. “I can taste the mint gum I’m chewing.” 

George attempted to remove his hands from Dream’s, but Dream squeezed his hands, making him stay. George leaned back onto the car door, his left leg was propped on the seat of the car, his right on the car floor, with Dream between his legs. 

“Don’t go. Please.” Dream’s voice cracked, it was barely a whisper. The only thing audible in the car was their breathing, the car was turned off. George wanted to know what happened, but he refrained from asking. 

“I’m sorry I was a douche earlier. I didn’t mean for the comment to come out that way, I- I panicked and-” His breathing quickened under George’s hand and he brought their hands to Dream’s face, resting on his cheek. “It’s ok. You don’t have to talk about it.” 

Dream wanted to talk about it. He wanted to tell George how he felt, and he knew George didn’ feel the same. 

“I want to stay here forever.” Dream’s breath caught in his throat. “Wh-Where? North Carolina?” Dream slightly panicked. George giggled, sending Dream’s emotions spiraling. “No, dummy, here. With you. In this silent car, no distractions, no one asking us questions, just us. Existing.” Dream felt his face heat up, and he smiled. “Yeah, me too.” 

-

George rested his head on Dream’s shoulder as they pulled into Karl’s driveway, Karl and Alex’s laughs radiating inside of the house. Sapnap parked the car and immediately jumped out, George following. Dream followed behind, but not as fast. He was still recovering from the moment he and George shared. George had done the grounding routine with Dream a few other times during a panic attack. This time was different, this time the attack was about George and his feelings towards him, and this time he had George to physically guide him through it. 

Karl burst through the door and crashed into Sapnap, as Alex crashed into George. The four relished in their embrace as Dream approached, and they all separated as Karl and Alex stared at Dream, who towered over all of them. “You’re so fucking tall.” Alex said as he ran to hug Dream, who laughed. “I want a hug!” Karl whined, joining Alex in the hug. “I want a Dream hug!” Sapnap cried, who joined them in the hug. 

“Come here, George,” Dream said, as he opened his right arm for George, who smiled and crashed into him, Dream’s heart glowing. The five indulged in their hug before inevitably separating, but George and Dream stayed in each other’s arms for a moment longer than the rest. 

“My fiancé’s! I have you both here with me!” Sapnap yelled, pulling Alex and Karl into their own hug. Dream and George laughed as they walked to the car to grab their things. They all three brought carry-on sized suitcases, not knowing how long they would be staying. 

They migrated into the house and talked about random things before Karl insisted they all leave to get food. Dream offered to drive, and Karl sat in the passenger seat, seeing as he was the next tallest of the group. “Why are you three so short? Imagine not being in the six feet category, kinda embarrassing…” Karl trailed off, receiving complaints from the three shorties in the back. Dream and Karl laughed, having their own conversation while the three in the back talked amongst themselves. 

“So, Dream and George are sharing? Do we get our own DNF content?” Karl commented, making Dream and George go silent. “Don’t make comments like that, guys, or Dream will be completely silent for the next five hours until he and George ‘make up’ while you go pee. I speak from experience.” Sapnap held up air quotes while he said ‘make up’. Dream and George both blushed, but the others couldn’t see it through the darkness.

“Oh god, are we sitting on jizz right now?” Alex looked down at the seat as he laughed, making Sapnap and Karl laugh, Dream and George rolled their eyes. “Gross, Quackity!” George whined. Alex laughed. George groaned. “Can we change the subject, this is gross,” They all laughed and George half-smiled as he rubbed his face with his palm. “I think Quackity should sleep on the couch since he’s already visited you, Karl, and gotten his own room.” 

“What? So you’re saying you don’t want to cuddle with Dream?” George rolled his eyes. “I mean, I never said _that._ ” They all laughed, even Dream. “George, if you don’t want to sleep with Dream you’re more than welcome to cuddle with me,” Sapnap said, giggling. George fake-vomited and shook his head. “I’ll sleep with Dream, thanks.” The car erupted with laughter as George slammed his hand to his face. Not what he meant. 

“Promise?” Dream teased, making George whine again. 

Soon they arrived at the restaurant and got their food. 

-

Karl and George streamed, and they all five posted pictures together on their social media. Even Dream posted a picture on his alt Twitter of the other four sitting on the couch with his hand in front of the camera flipping them off, proving he was there. Alex posted a picture on Twitter of his head in front of Dream’s chest, showing how much shorter he was than him. Dream’s face was cut out, obviously, but Dream was still in the photo. He captioned it “I’m taller than Dream” 

Dream posted the picture of him flipping off the four of them, along with the picture of George driving with his leg up. He captioned it “George drives like a girl.”. Their fans went crazy, they couldn’t doubt that it was real considering they were all sitting next to each other in Karl’s living room. They did, however, doubt that Dream was there. He didn’t really have a way to prove it, considering he couldn’t show his face. But, during Karl’s stream, he came into the room and waved his hand in front of the camera. He sat out of the camera’s view on the floor and talked to chat for a while, trying to prove he was there. 

‘THEY'RE TOGETHER’ and ‘QUACKITY IS SHORT’ were both trending on twitter, following Quackity’s post about height. Dream sat in the corner of the room while Karl streamed and scrolled through Twitter. He laughed, making the others question what he was laughing at. “Someone on Twitter said to prove the height difference between me and George.” He laughed. “Guys, I can literally rest my chin on top of George’s head comfortably, I’m way taller than him.” The four went silent. “How do you know that?” Karl asked. 

Dream laughed as George blushed. “We hugged the day he flew in, nothing crazy. You guys are so dumb,” He laughed, George scooted closer to him. Karl and Sapnap sat in chairs and Alex and George sat on the floor with Dream. 

The streams ended and George and Dream fled to bed, they were both exhausted. Alex had already fallen asleep in a bed, as well as Sapnap. They were both half asleep, and didn’t feel like arguing. “I’ll sleep on the couch.” George slurred as he grabbed a blanket. Dream grabbed his wrist as he walked away. “No, you’re not. Just sleep in here, I’ll sleep out there.” Dream grabbed his pillow and blanket, but George closed the door before he could leave. “You’re too tall to sleep out there. Look, it’s a king size bed, we can both sleep here comfortably without it being weird. It’s not weird unless we make it weird.” George sounded drunk, but Dream was too tired to argue. 

They both plopped into bed after brushing their teeth and slowly drifted to sleep. Little did either of them know that they both wanted to turn over and sleep in each other's arms. They both fell asleep with each other on their minds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS I just wrote chapter 12 and its an absolute banger so stick around for that one, it's like 4.5k words long :o I hope you enjoyed it! I'm not sure how much longer this fic will be, maybe fifteen or sixteen chapters total? Idk, leave suggestions for chapters in the comments lmao


	11. together

George wakes up with the feeling of a weight on his chest. He sighs as he attempts to turn from his right to his left side, being stopped. He reluctantly opens his eyes to the bright beams of light shining through the window shutters, and the apparent weight on his chest being Dream’s arm spread across his chest. He looks down and groans, knowing he won’t be able to move his heavy arm off of him. He rolls over, trying not to disturb the giant man sleeping next to him, and rolls onto his side. He’s too asleep to notice Dream’s hair in his face as he turns. Still half asleep, he pulls the covers over himself and falls back into sleep, the warmth of Dream’s body comforting him. 

“Oh, my lanta” Karl whispers as he opens the door to the downstairs guest room, which was originally a den before Karl turned it into another bedroom. He opens the door quietly, as to not disturb either of them who might still be sleeping, they both were. “What?” Sapnap asks as he trudges down the stairs, his heavy footsteps being louder than Karl’s spoken words. He shushes Sapnap and motions for him to come to the door, his index finger over his mouth, motioning for Sapnap to quiet down. 

“Oh my fuck-” Karl slaps Sapnap’s arm before he can finish, his morning voice clearly unable to be quiet. Karl quickly pulls his phone from his pocket and takes a picture of the sight before him before closing the door quietly and grinning from ear to ear. 

They were _cuddling._ Dream had his arm wrapped around George and George was snuggled into the crook of Dream’s body, the blanket bunched at the bottom of the bed; their legs were intertwined. “I’m using that as blackmail,” Sapnap remarked as he yawned, stretching his arms above his head. 

“No, you are not!” Karl exclaimed, his brows furrowing. “That was cute, that’s why I took the picture, not for you to blackmail them with!” Sapnap giggled at Karl as he walked into the kitchen, Alex was already standing at the counter brewing a pot of coffee. “Good morning, my handsome fiancé!” Sapnap exclaimed as he ran up to Alex, who looked ready to kill Sapnap. 

“What are you so loud for? It’s like nine am, it’s practically dawn and you’re yelling,” Alex snapped, his eyes still half shut and puffy. Sapnap frowned, and Alex punched his arm. “Good morning, morons.” 

The three drank their coffee and talked about Dream and George, and how freaked out they’d be when they woke up. Sapnap told them about the incident that happened in the car after Dream went silent for four hours. He told them about how weird Dream and George were acting when he returned from peeing, noticing how they were sitting in the backseat together. 

“Well, were they acting _lovey?_ ” Karl asked, resulting in the others laughing. “No, not at all. They were just different, they were closer than I’ve seen them since George has been here.” Sapnap shrugged as he rinsed his cup. “And that comment about how ‘perfectly Dream’s chin rested on George’s head’? That was weird,” 

“It wasn’t _weird,_ per say, it was cute. Do you think there’s something going on? Like, between them?” Alex asked, being caffeinated enough to function. Sapnap nodded and scoffed, “There’s DEFINITELY something going on, but neither of them knows it. They’re both so dense, it’s painful. I mean, they’re watching a show together.” Alex and Karl laughed. 

-

Dream was the first to wake up this time, his senses being awoken by the scent of vanilla and the warmth of another near him. He opened his eyes, and after they adjusted to the brightness of the room, he noticed George’s petite body intertwined with his. He blushed, not wanting to disturb sleeping George. He nuzzled his head atop of George’s, engulfing in the sweet scent of his hair. It was clear George used women’s shampoo, but his hair smelt nice and it was soft and fluffy. He smiled, wanting to remain in this spot forever, but his body begged him to get up and go pee. He carefully removed himself from George, luckily for Dream, George fell into the spot Dream was in and slept peacefully. He used the restroom and left quietly, sighing from the ending of their moment. 

He heard rustling and laughter from the kitchen, he walked through the archway into Karl, Alex, and Sapnap flipping pancakes and yelping at hot bacon grease hitting their arms. He rubbed his eyes as the others noticed him, they all shared a knowing look and smiled at Dream. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” Karl said. Dream sighed and sat at a barstool, pulling his phone from the pocket of his sweats. “Good morning.” 

Karl yelped. “Ooh, your morning voice is sooo sexy,” Karl mocked their fans. Dream laughed. “Fuck off,” Alex and Sapnap laughed. “So, how’s George.” Alex asked and Karl giggled, they knew something he didn’t. “Fine? I don’t know, he’s still asleep.” Alex hummed to himself and Karl walked up to Dream, his phone in his hand. “Oh ok, and how did you guys sleep?” Dream furrowed his brows as Karl, Alex and Sapnap grinned at each other. 

“What are you talking about?” Dream thought he knew what they were talking about, but hoped he didn’t. Karl showed Dream his phone, and Dream immediately flushed bright red and buried his face in his arms resting on the counter. The three laughed as Dream’s burning cheeks clashed with the cold marble countertop. “Awe, didn’t think we’d see you guys?” Sapnap teased as he shook Dream’s shoulders, which were hunched over his body. 

They’d taken a picture, presumably from earlier, of them cuddling. “Ok, it looks bad, but it wasn’t intentional. I hate you guys,” He was beyond embarrassed, but also happy that he was laughing with his best friends. They teased him, and he tried to explain that it wasn’t intentional, but they didn’t give into it. While it was an accident, it was a happy one. He loved George, and didn’t know if he’d ever be able to share another moment with him like that again. 

They all four at breakfast and set some aside for George, who still wasn’t awake at ten when they’d finished eating and cleaning. “Someone wake George up so that we can get on with our day, I have shit planned for us to do.” Karl said, and the four of them ran to their room to wake him up. He was still dead asleep, and Sapnap was the first to run to George and yell at him to wake up. Nothing happened. Then Alex and Karl tried waking him, but also nothing. The most he’d done was move his shoulders. “Your turn, lover boy.” Sapnap said as he slapped Dream’s butt, Dream slapping his arm after. “Fuck off, Sapnap, or I’ll post _that_ picture.” That shut Sapnap up really fast, and Dream made his way around the massive bed. 

They’d made a bet beforehand that whoever could wake George up would get five dollars each from the others, and they all agreed. Dream was a sore loser, which is why he wanted to go last. He put one leg over George’s body, in a straddling position, and could hear the groans from the others behind him, but didn’t care. He hovered above George’s body, placing one hand on each of his shoulders and shook him slightly. Alex had already tried to shake him awake, and failed. Only this time, Dream got close to his ear and spoke quietly. “George..” He spoke in his ‘manhunt voice’, meaning his voice was low. 

This woke George right up. Dream was hovering above his body, and George groaned as he woke up, his first sight being Dream hovered above him. He grinned. “What are you doing, step Dream?” The others groaned. Dream laughed as he got off of George and onto the floor. He held out his hand, motioning for his payment. “Of course all Dream had to do was straddle him and he’d wake up.” Sapnap groaned, leaving the room. “You’re just mad,” Karl and Alex laughed and left the room. Dream was laughing as he began to leave, but George stopped him. “Dream, wait.” He was sitting up in bed now, rubbing his eyes with his legs in a criss-cross. 

“Yeah?” Dream stopped laughing and looked back at George. “What were you guys doing?” Dream grinned. “Trying to wake you up, whoever won got $20. I won,” George smiled. “You knew just how to wake me, didn’t you?” His voice was raspy, Dream’s heart raced. 

“Y-Yeah, I guess I did.” He didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know what George knew, or how George felt. George just grinned and picked up his phone, Dream sighed. He wanted to tell him so bad how he felt. He left and sat on the couch, trying to figure out George and his mixed signals. 

The four of them followed Karl throughout his plans for the day, and George couldn’t keep his mind off of Dream. While Dream was at home when they would leave the house together, George thought only of Dream. He would do anything to relive the feeling this morning when Dream had his arms wrapped around him, he wished someone took a photo to prove to him that it wasn’t a dream. He wanted to smell his body wash and feel the comfort that Dream brought him. He wanted to feel Dream’s body hovering over his, inches away from connecting. He wanted it all, and he didn’t want to have to hide it. 

-

They all sat around the table eating their food, Dream unfortunately failing at using the chopsticks that came with his meal. How cute, Dream ordered a California roll as his first ever sushi roll, along with a crunchy. They tried to tell him that he’d like the spicy tuna, but he insisted he wouldn’t be able to handle the spice. George watched as Dream failed to pick up the piece of roll and watched it fall into the wasabi on his plate. George laughed and Dream looked defeated, he stood up to grab a fork before George stopped him, 

“Hell no, you’re not eating sushi with a fork, or your hands,” George shook his head as he dipped his spicy tuna in soy sauce, of course the low sodium because the normal was too salty. “But I can’t use them, and my food is getting gross. I’ll eventually learn,” He whined as George sighed. He pulled the chopsticks from Dream and handed them to him in the positioning his hands were supposed to be in. George showed his as an example, trying to teach him, but his fingers wouldn’t find the rhythm. George rolled his eyes as he set down his chopsticks, leaning over to Dream and holding his hands, moving them into place. 

George could hear Dream gasp at George’s sudden movement, but he calmed himself. “Like this,” George helped Dream, his right hand on Dream’s right as he guided the food to his mouth, as if he were feeding him for him. Dream’s eyes closed and his head leaned back as he tasted the food for the first time, nearly moaning at the flavor. 

“Jesus, what the hell are you two doing over there?” Alex asked as he peered behind the others at the bar, looking to Dream and George that were on the far left. He saw George’s hands on Dream’s and he motioned to the others. The other three looked at Dream and George and smiled. “What? What’s the joke?” George furrowed his brows as he removed himself from Dream, as Dream now got the hang of the chopsticks. Karl giggled, “You guys didn’t show him?”

George was utterly confused as he looked around the room, landing on a bright-red Dream, who had his head down. “Show me what?” Karl pulled out his phone and walked to George, who was confused. He looked down at the photo Karl had pulled up on his phone, and immediately lit bright red. He looked at Dream, who wasn’t even looking at him, then to the others who were holding in laughter. “Was that this morning?” His voice was low, he was embarrassed, but not because of the situation, he was embarrassed because he could tell Dream was uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with the thought of _them._

“Yeah, aren’t you guys cute! I took that when I went in to wake you up, but I didn't want to ruin the happy couple.” Karl taunted, and George and Dream were silent. They left it alone, but both Dream and George wanted to elaborate so bad. They wanted to say that they didn’t care, that they both felt that way about each other. That they loved each other as more than friends. They were in love, but were in denial. 

They left the kitchen shortly after that for bed. The three others dispersed upstairs and George and Dream left for their room, still tense after the conversation they’d had before. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t even know that I did that. I can sleep on the couch if you want me to.” Dream’s voice was shaky, he sounded like he was about to cry. Maybe it was how sleepy George was from their long day of filming and errands, maybe it was because he hated seeing his friend sad, maybe it was because he loved the man who stood before him. But he went to him and hugged him, he wrapped his lanky arms around his torso and hugged him. He buried his face into his chest and inhaled the comforting scent of lavender and eucalyptus he knew too well. 

Dream hugged him back. He wrapped his arms around George’s small frame and smiled, feeling a single tear fall down his cheek. He didn’t know why he was crying, maybe it’s because he’d come to terms with the fact that he’d never be able to kiss George. Maybe it’s because he’d come to terms with the fact that he’d never be able to call George his. Maybe it’s because even though he wouldn’t be more than friends with George, his friendship was enough for him. He loved George so deeply he didn’t want to tell him about his feelings because he knew their friendship would never be the same. Even if George felt the same way, their friendship would never be what it is now. 

“You’re not sleeping on the couch, and you have nothing to be sorry about.” Dream didn’t know what George meant by this. Was he ok with it? Was he not ok with it? Did it mean something? Was it just ‘guys being guys’? “Soooo…” They were still hugging, Dream’s nose was in George’s hair, absorbing the sweet scent of vanilla and hint of cologne George sprayed this morning. “So, I don’t care. It was actually quite nice, I feel safe with you.” Dream’s heart burst. Out of impulse, he pressed a small kiss to the top of George’s head before pulling away from their hug. George looked shocked, but not opposed. He gave a sweet smile to Dream before climbing into bed. 

They didn’t fall asleep in each other’s arms, but they woke up together. And this time, they woke up together and stayed together until their duties called. They didn’t speak of it, or speak during it, but they both appreciated the moments they shared in each other’s company. Without anyone to judge or make assumptions, without anyone asking questions. Just them, living. George fell asleep with a thought on his mind, a thought that would stay with him. 

_I'm so fascinated by you. I will always be in awe of you. I can promise you, no one will ever compare to you. I love you, Clay. And I know I always will._


	12. déja vu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> banger chapter warning D:

Small fragments of light shone through the window covers as George and Dream slept soundlessly together. Dream’s arms draped over George’s body as they did the morning before, only this time it felt subconsciously intentional. George buried himself in Dream’s body and immersed himself in Dream’s warmth. They began to wake at the same time, their breathing patterns aligning. Once Dream was awake, he began to remove himself from George as he did the morning before, only this time George cupped his hand over Dream’s, which was draped over his torso.

“Don’t go,” George whispered, sending chills down Dream’s arm. “Wh-” George positioned his body even closer to Dream, and was now even more buried in Dream than he was before. “Don’t leave, stay. Stay with me.” Dream blinked before resuming his prior position, pulling George closer to him. George yelped at the movement, but stayed with him.

Dream didn’t know what to make of the situation, but he didn’t want it to stop. George’s scent filled his sinuses, making him nearly melt. The familiar scent of vanilla comforted him, and he nuzzled his face into George’s neck.

It felt wrong. Not wrong in the sense of them together, but wrong in the sense of him knowing George didn’t feel this way about him. George had never expressed signs of these feelings towards Dream, and now they were blatantly cuddling with their friends in the next room over. They lied together for minutes before either of them spoke a word.

“George, where is everyone?” He didn’t want the moment to end, but George sighed and sat up, stretching his arms above his head. “Karl texted me, they’re filming a video all day together. They didn’t invite us because of some fiancé thing, I don’t know. I didn’t ask for details. I’d rather stay with you anyway, considering we’re alone.” Dream raised his brows at this, lines forming across his forehead.

The two got up and went to the kitchen, the feeling of guilt settling in Dream’s chest. He sighed, he wanted George more than anything. It was raining, it didn’t look like they’d be doing anything outside all day. He pulled a mug from Karl’s cupboard and filled it with hot water from Karl’s water filter. “Do you want anything for breakfast? I can make us something.” Dream suggested, George’s face lit at the words.

“I’d love some pancakes!” He sounded like a little kid, enthusiasm through the roof. Dream smiled as he began to steep his tea. While he wasn’t much of a tea person, he couldn’t even bear the scent of coffee, so tea was the lesser of two evils, and he needed caffeine. He pulled out of the box of mix from Karl’s cupboard and began to heat the pan. He felt George watching him as he moved quickly from station to station, cleaning his mess as he made it. His mother taught him this, and it became a habit ever since he was a little kid.

He stood at the pan, waiting to flip the pancakes as he felt arms wrap around his torso, making his breath catch in his throat. He looked down at George’s small arms wrapped around him, bringing him more comfort than he’d like to admit. Once again, he didn’t know what to make of the situation, but he embraced it. He giggled and placed his free hand atop of George’s. George stood wrapped around him until he was done with the food, and they ate together before Dream cleaned up.

It all felt weird. But, it felt natural. It didn’t feel out of place or gross, it felt like second nature. It felt normal to have George by his side at all times, it felt normal to have him sweet-talking him and having his arms around him. It felt normal to hold hands.

They decided to watch a movie, and sat together on Karl’s couch. George dimmed the lights and sat immediately on Dream’s lap, startling Dream. They turned on a random rom-com, but Dream’s attention wasn’t on the movie.

It felt so right. Having George between his legs with his arms around him felt so right. George faced away from him, they were in the same position as the night in the car, only Dream was behind George. They wrapped themselves in a green blanket, a sage green that George couldn’t see. Dream frowned as he thought about George’s colorblindness. He knew that if they ever found a treatment for his colorblindness, he would be the first person to get it for him. No matter the cost or the challenges, nothing would stop him from helping George see color.

George drew circles on Dream’s hand with his thumb, and Dream’s hand rested on George’s stomach. George looked back at Dream, who was staring down at him. He smiled at the blonde before him. Dream looked into George’s chocolate brown eyes, he melted into them. George was the only person he melted for. His heart was about to burst, he never wanted the moment to end.

Then, he felt George’s lips on his. Currents of passion shot through his body like electricity. He cupped George’s face with his hand, wanting to consume him, _all of him._

George had shifted and was now facing Dream, the only sound in the room being their breathing and the sounds of a girl’s laughter on the television. They moved together effortlessly, they knew each other’s body language and motions too well. Dream smiled through their kiss, becoming breathless. He pulled away and rested his forehead on George’s, their breathing was heavy. His hands cupped George’s face and George’s were in Dream’s hair.

George smiled and kissed him again, this time it was only a peck. They were both red and out of breath. George’s smile crinkled his cheeks. It didn’t feel real.

“DREAM WAKE UP” Sapnap’s screams rang in Dream’s ear as he felt a hot breath on his face. He opened his eyes to Sapnap hovering above him, he was back in his bed as he was earlier that day.

He looked around, George wasn’t there.

“George, Karl, and Alex left to get food, it’s just us, baby.” Sapnap teased, blowing a kiss Dream’s way. He closed the door and Dream lied on his back, running his hand through his hair.

_It didn’t feel real because it wasn’t real._

-

The rest of the day felt 10x longer than any of the rest. Every minute felt like an hour, every commercial on TV felt five minutes rather than thirty seconds. His songs on his playlist felt like five hours. He hadn’t really seen George all morning, he’d only seen him vaguely for a few moments throughout the day, no words had been spoken. Sapnap didn’t specify why he woke Dream up, but it _was_ two PM, after all.

 **DREAM** _@dreamhangout_  
sorry i’ve been inactive! i’ve been busy, but i’m gonna stream in about a half hour to make it up to you guys! not sure what i’ll do but i want to hang out with chat :)  
2.3k REPLIES / 1.7K RTS / 44.5K LIKES

He didn’t usually tweet about streams, but he’d been inactive on his social media for almost a week, and he missed his fans. Immediately, his replies were flooded with excited fans and sarcasm from his fans, he loved them. No matter who was attacking them and what for, Dream always defended his fans.

 **Karl Jacobs:** yo you’re streaming???

 **Nick:** bro you just weren’t gonna tell me you were streaming tf

He read the texts that appeared on his phone, but he didn’t feel like replying. There was honestly only one person he wanted on his stream, but they hadn’t spoken all day.

_Fucking hell, why did I have that dream? As if this trip, AND sleeping in the same bed weren’t hard enough, now I have that over my head too?_

Soon, it was time for him to boot up his stream. He clicked the daunting ‘Go Live!’ button and waited. Almost immediately, there was one person chatting.

 **andreawastakennn:** hi dream! I’m happy you’re streaming! I missed you!

Dream smiled. His chat was stagnantly empty for another few seconds. “Hi, Andrea! I missed you all too!” She typed a smile in chat that Dream saw, but it was soon drowned out by his chat flooding with people. He waited a few minutes before he began reading donations out.

“How’s the trip going? Great! I can’t do any filming with them, obviously, but with the videos I _can_ participate in, I’m having a lot of fun!” He read off donations as he ‘speed ran’, which was just him trying to beat the game whilst reading off donations. So, he was speed running, but he wasn’t going for any record or time. Countless donations came through asking about how, rather clingy, he and George were during Karl’s stream. He tried his best to ignore them, but soon his chat was spamming asking about George. Every now and then there would be a chatter saying ‘Don’t ask about other streamers/CCs in streams! It’s rude!’ They were right. Dream didn’t mind, but he knew a lot of his other streamer friends that did care but never said anything.

“Look, guys, George is fine. We are fine, we’re all hanging out, but if you guys could stop spamming about him that would be nice.” He giggled, but felt like he was being harsh. He’d never liked being harsh with his chat, but he saw other streamers that were strict with their chats and liked how respectful and not-weird their chats were. He always subconsciously used Punz’s chat as an example for how he wanted his chat to look. Though, he had a much bigger audience to try and control than Punz did.

Instead of light guidance, chat took it as a hint that he and George _weren’t_ fine, which is the exact opposite of what he wanted to happen. He didn’t even bother trying to help, clearly it only made it worse. That happened sometimes, which is a given with bigger fanbases, that they read too much into things and create unnecessary drama.

“How are you, like actually not just ‘I’m alright’? I’m ok, I’m not great, but it’s…. personal. Thank you for the dono, Maddie.” After Dream replied to the dono, his chat was filled with heart emotes and ‘Dream Support’ messages. He smiled, but didn’t comment. He carried on with his stream as normal, replying to donations and bit messages, thanking his gifters, the usual. The stream was mainly calm, up until Karl started spamming his chat with ‘WERE WATCHING ON THE TV IN THE LIVING ROOM LMAOO’. Dream thought it would be funny to crack jokes about them, even if they weren’t watching.

“Guys the other night I had to help Karl drive because he was too drunk to do anything,” Messages in chat began being spammed, and Karl was talking in chat again. “Yeah, and Sapnap was so high off of his ass he couldn’t do anything either, it was hilarious.” Chat was going off, and Dream was laughing at the chats being spammed by his friends. Sapnap bursted into Dream’s room and ran up to him,

“I will not hesitate to turn on that face cam and end your entire fucking career.” Dream was wheezing as the others laughed from the living room. He ended the stream soon after that, Karl and Sapnap yelled at him after the stream was over. George was acting like his normal self, but Dream could feel how different he was acting towards George. He didn’t want to be acting this way, but he noticed himself acting different.

He’d do small things like intentionally not sit next to him at dinner, or sit on the opposite end of the couch from him, he didn’t even bother to care when George complained about Dream watching a cheesy movie without him, which was their favorite activity together. George noticed too, and tried to motion for them to talk, but he couldn’t. He didn’t have an excuse. His reason wasn’t something he could exactly say out loud, so he avoided the conversation.

“I’m gonna head to bed guys, I need to be up early to film with Jimmy, love you guys!” Karl said as he tiredly strolled up the stairs, Sapnap and Alex following shortly after. This left Dream and George, alone as always. They had all been sitting around the couch watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians. It was dramatic but entertaining, especially when 3 of the 5 of them were under an _influence._

Dream made his way to the room, and George followed him closely. He shut the door as soon as both of them were in the room, and he cornered Dream. “What the hell is going on?” He was stern and demanding immediately. Dream was taken back, he didn’t know how to respond. So he didn’t. He just stood there staring down at George’s frustrated face, he couldn’t focus on anything besides not pulling his face in a kiss.

“Clay.” Dream stopped. He had to turn away, he turned to face the window. “I- I can’t,” He paused. “You can’t _what,_ Dream?” Dream felt his face heat in anxiousness, what was he supposed to say? That he’d been blatantly avoiding him and ignoring him all day because he felt like it? George did nothing, he didn’t do anything. He didn’t do anything besides not love Dream the way he loved him.

“I can’t do this.” Was all he said before going into the bathroom. He shut and locked the door like an angsty teenager, which is what he was acting like. He was acting like an angsty teenager. He heard George sigh and approach the door.

“Dream, I’m sorry. Please come out, we can talk about this. You’re clearly upset over something.”

_I’m not upset, I’m hurting. I’m hurting because of you. It’s not your fault, but it’s my fault that I caught feelings for my best friend. My straight best friend. It hurts to even look at you._

“I’m not upset, George. I- I’m sad. Just, let me be.” He pressed his forehead against the door, he wished George was doing the same. “Let me help you.” Dream felt a tear fall down his face, he was thankful George couldn’t see him.

-

By the time he’d finished crying in the shower, George was already laying down in bed. He was playing on his phone, but he was facing towards the bathroom. Steam filled the bathroom and slowly moved into the bedroom as he opened the door, George looked up to him with sad eyes. Dream didn’t look at George, he walked past him to the dresser where their clothes were and put his clothes in the drawer and laundry. He felt George hug him from behind, which nearly made him cry again.

“George,” He whispered, he didn’t know if he could contain himself. “Just- Just let me hug you. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I love you and I hate seeing you sad. Just let me hug you, ok?” He sounded like he was on the verge of tears himself, and Dream turned around to hug him properly.

They stood together for an eternity before Dream pulled away to lay down. He climbed in bed and scooted as far to his left as he could, as to not disturb George. Or, not to wake up with his arms around him again.

A few times he looked over his shoulder at the small brunette lying next to him, considering embracing him. He always decided against it, but he regretted it after. He fell asleep that night with George on his mind, and hoped he did the same.

-

Dream felt the familiar body underneath his arms, and for a moment embraced the touch. He felt George’s heartbeat under his fingertips and watched as his shoulders raised and fell with every breath. He waited a moment before shifting his arms off of George, he was then stopped by George’s soft hands on his. “Don’t.” His voice was merely a whisper, and it stunned Dream.

“Don’t what?” Dream wasn’t even aware that George was awake, and if he knew he was he would’ve removed himself sooner. “Don’t go. Just, just lay with me for a moment.” Dream held his breath. He resumed his position, not motioning any more. George moved himself closer to Dream, their bodies now completely touching. George held Dream’s left hand in his as they lied soundlessly together.

George picked up his phone with his free hand and checked his messages. Dream felt his eyes slowly falling, him nearing sleep once again, before George interrupted him. “Everyone is out filming. It’s just us,” As George finished, there was a crack of thunder outside of their window, bringing their attention to the rain pouring from the clouds outside. “Oh, okay.” Was all he said.

They both got up from bed, and Dream made his way to the closet to fetch a hoodie, as he was nearly freezing. He pulled a dark green hoodie from his closet and began putting it on, before he noticed George didn’t have one on either. He stopped and outstretched his hoodie to George, who excitedly took it and slipped it on. He drowned in the dark fabric, it nearly covered his upper thighs. Dream smiled at George as he got himself a navy blue hoodie and slipped it on, he never left for a trip without at least five different hoodies. He’d learned from personal experience how dreadful it is having to wear the same one everyday.

They made their way to the kitchen and George sat at the bar. He scrolled through his phone as Dream grabbed a mug from the cupboard, the motion feeling oddly familiar, as he filled the porcelain mug with hot water. “Are you hungry?” George sprung up like a child, and nodded his head yes. Dream placed his tea bag into his mug and moved it around, watching the color of the tea steep into the water, turning the clear liquid a light shade of brown.

“I can make us pancakes, I don’t think Karl has a waffle ir-” Dream paused, this felt odd. He’d felt like he’d had this conversation before. “What was that?” George sounded more awake, and he turned his phone off, bringing his full attention to Dream. “Oh, uh, nothing. How’s pancakes?” His mind was running miles per second as he tried to put his finger on where he’d experienced this. “I’d love some pancakes!” Dream stopped. He _knew_ George would say that. He just didn’t know how.

He placed the flat pan on the stove, it heated as Dream poured the milk and eggs into the pancake mix. He barely realized the mix had fallen outside of the bowl, his mind was in a million different places. He poured out four perfect circles of mix as he stood by the stove, after cleaning any mess he could.

He felt George standing behind him, he placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned his head on Dream’s shoulder, and Dream jumped. George furrowed his brows, “What’s wrong? You’ve been odd all morning,” George’s hand was still on his shoulder as he stared down at the pancakes, small bubbles forming on the tops of the pancakes. He didn’t reply. He didn’t know what to say. “I’m- I’m fine.” George sighed as Dream flipped the pancakes, them being perfectly golden brown. He wrapped his arms around Dream and rested his chin on Dream’s shoulder. “You know you can talk to me, right?” George sounded sad, like he was afraid Dream was mad at him. Dream set the spatula on the counter and turned around to face George, his eyes wandering around Dream’s face.

“I’m sorry for how I’ve been acting, it- it’s hard to explain.” That’s not what Dream wanted to say. He wanted to tell him about his Dream, and his feelings, and the way George made him feel, and the things he wrote about him, and how he hated sleeping in the same bed and having to control himself. He wanted to tell him all of it, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t tell him anything.

“Can you tell me? Or try?” George was now hugging Dream, the side of his face pressed to Dream’s chest. Dream sighed. “I really can’t, I’m sorry. I’ll tell you when I can, it’s really hard for me to say, I’m not ready yet. I’m sorry, George.” He hated doing this to George. They told each other everything, every heartbreak, every feeling, every crazy dream, every time they were mad at Sapnap and needed to vent, _everything._ And now he felt like he couldn’t tell him anything.

He turned around and took the pancakes off the heat, they were perfectly cooked. Golden brown on both sides. George still wrapped his arms around him from behind, but Dream didn’t mind. He missed his friend, he felt like he hadn’t told him anything in forever. “Please do, I feel like I’m losing you.” Dream’s heart shattered. He turned around after pouring the mix, which was only a few seconds after George said that, and squeezed his friend. “Oh, George.”

They stood hugging for a few moments more before Dream looked down at him, George’s eyes were glossed over. “Of course you’re not losing me. I’m just dealing with something, something I don’t want to burden you with.” That’s because the burden _was_ him. It was Dream’s feelings about George, that was the ‘personal issue’. George nodded, not pushing any further.

Dream finished making their pancakes with George behind him, he was on top of the world, even the smallest thing from George meant the world to him. He loved George so much, he hated lying to him. He was in love with George, and falling more in love each day.

Small things he’d do during the day set off the crazy déja vu he’d been having all day. Small things were happening that he could nearly predict, and they’d happen before his eyes. It was freaking him out, because he didn’t know where he’d seen it.

They sat down on the couch to watch Jane the Virgin, as they were two episodes away from season three, and hadn’t watched much since they’d been at Karl’s.

”Wig is not perfect, but I do better next time. I can see what Petra is seeing in him, actually. He-- he is being very charming.” A blonde woman says as she sits at a metal jail table. She is fiddling with her hair as the other woman across from her makes a face. “You stay away from that man.” The other woman waves her- missing hand- in the blonde woman’s face. “Don’t worry. I won’t mess up plan we have spent whole year working on.” She nods her head. “Wow,” the other woman says. “Has it been year already? Time flies.” The screen fades to white as the infamous “To be Continued…” types out on the screen, signaling the episode is over.

“Holy shit, they’ve been planning this shit for a YEAR?” George exclaims as he sips his coffee. Dream smiles and nods. “Her mother is a psycho.” They nod their heads in agreement as the next episode plays, the recap playing.

“Is your personal issue about me?” George’s voice was low and sad. Dream turns to him, the recap of the previous episodes still playing. “George,” He leans closer, which is nearly difficult because of how close they were to begin with. “Not in a bad way, I- I mean do you f-feel some way?” He stumbled over his words. Dream’s heart raced. “What are you implying?” Dream’s voice was lower and more interested than he intended it to be, but he leaned even closer to George, who was staring at his hands.

“I- I mean. You’ve been weird around me, you’re not weird around the others. It’s different between us,” He isn’t looking at Dream, but Dream is looking down at him. Dream reaches his hand down to George’s and rests it on his, Dream can hear his own heartbeat. “That’s because it is different between us, George.” George looks up to him with curious eyes. Their eyes meet and Dream’s eyes flicker to George’s lips, he can't help it. George lifts his hand to the side of Dream’s face, his thumb rubbing his cheek. Their hearts beat out of their chests as they stare at each other’s features.

Dream feels the space between them growing smaller as they lean closer, their breaths touching. Their eyes flutter shut, George’s hand is on the side of Dream’s face as Dream’s hand is in George’s hair, and they’re interrupted by the sound of the front door being unlocked.

They immediately pull apart, going to their ends of the couch where they had been before. They stare at the TV, trying to not look suspicious. Their beet-red faces and heavy breathing didn’t help their causes, but the others couldn’t see that from behind them. The show played loudly as the others stumbled into the house, the sound of wet shoes and the smell of damp hoodies filling the empty house.

Dream looked behind him to the three laughing at something, and he stood to greet them. “Hey guys!” He exclaimed, his poker face was great, in his opinion. He was good at lying through his teeth, no matter how much he hated to admit it. “Dweeaaammmm, my baby boy!” Sapnap exclaimed as he ran to Dream, his damp hoodie filling Dream’s nose as he hugged him. He turned his nose up at the smell. “Oh god, how long have you guys been outside? You guys smell like wet dogs!” He laughed as the others whined. “You love it, though, don’t you daddy Dream?” Karl said, the others laughed and Dream snickered. “Go shower, then we can watch a movie.”

“Did you and George have fun? What did you guys do?” Sapnap asked as he removed his shoes, setting them in the garage to dry off. Dream looked back at George, who was silently looking at Dream. “Oh you know,” Dream grinned at him slightly. “Just watched TV. We had to catch up on our show.”

George watched as Dream followed Sapnap upstairs, leaving him alone on the couch, with his stomach full of butterflies.

_What the fuck just happened?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! There are fifteen chapters written for the whole book, so only three more after this :( but I promise you'll like it after you read the last chapter, it's a goodie :)


	13. matcha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The infamous green little plant is mentioned, that's it lol. Just a little warning!

_he nearly kissed me. my hands were on his cheek, his hands were in my hair, we were so close, i could practically taste him. i miss it. that feeling i had while touching him, we were so close to the thing i’ve so desperately wanted for so long. it felt so right, so normal, so… perfect. and now i'm sitting in my- sorry, our- bed writing this sloppily on my phone’s notes app while he’s upstairs acting like nothing happened. acting like we didn’t just almost kiss. i just need to write it out, no one besides me will ever see this, but i need to write it out, get all of my feelings out on paper. well, digital paper._

_he wanted it too. he put his hands in my hair, he leaned in, he looked at my lips, he wraps his arms around me when we sleep, he wants it too… right? im so confused, i wished it happened. we’ve been best friends for so long and all of the sudden we almost kiss? i don’t know how to feel. i need to talk to him._

He leaned back on his pillow, raising his arms above his head. He contemplated his next move. George had been in bed for nearly an hour as the others were upstairs with Dream. George listened to the Bridgerton album of classical music as he showered, the hot water running down his back, bringing him back to real life.

He couldn’t get Dream out of his mind. The warm water brought him back to Dream’s warm touch, the steam reminded him of the hypothetical steam during their exchange, the shampoo scent reminded him of Dream’s hair. Everything reminded him of Dream. The fabric of his sweatpants reminded him of Dream’s soft touch. His sweatshirt, _Dream’s sweatshirt,_ was so big on him. It covered his behind and then some, he could do sweatshirt paws with the sleeves, and the warmth and smell of Dream made him never want to wash it.

He opened the bathroom door and was met by Dream standing at the dresser, catching him by surprise. Dream looked back with tired eyes, he grinned at George’s sweatshirt and walked to him. “I like your hoodie,” Dream said as he neared George, his voice low. “Oh, I do too.” George said smiling at Dream, who was now standing in front of him, looking down at him. Dream smiled. “So…” George sighed.

“So,” George didn’t want to be the one to vocalize what happened earlier. He liked it, but he didn’t want to be the one to actually say it out loud. “So, what was _that?_ ” Dream looked to the door and looked back to George, he sighed. “Well, I don’t exactly know what to say, if I’m being honest.” His voice was unsteady, he wasn’t sure which lines to cross.

Dream wrapped his arms around George and hugged him, pulling him close. He sighed into George’s hair, his breath sending shivers down George’s spine. “Well, how’d you feel,” He paused. _”With my hands in your hair,”_ He whispered into George’s ear, his breath making goosebumps rise on his arms.

“Mm,” George couldn’t speak, he was speechless. “How did you feel, George?” Dream’s tone was demanding. His whispers and hot breath in George’s ears made him weak. “G-Good. Th-They came home at the wrong time,” He chuckled slightly, trying to ease the tension. Dream giggled maliciously. He pulled away from George, releasing his grip on him. He walked away and stood at the window that looked out onto the street Karl lived on. The city lights illuminating the dark road, and the empty streets giving an eerie feeling.

George yearned for his touch, he didn’t savor it when he had it. He watched Dream as he swiftly made his way to the window, the only light in the room being from the moonlight. George walked over to Dream, the subtle moonlight seeped in from the window and illuminated Dream’s face. His faded freckles were visible, the dimple on his left cheek made a permanent dent on the side of his face, his hair fell into his face, covering his forehead. He was so tall, he still wore the navy crewneck he’d been wearing earlier. His face was slightly flushed, and his eyes glistened. George was mesmerized, completely entranced by Dream’s beauty.

Dream stared out of the window, but shifted his gaze to George, who was still staring at him. Dream rolled his eyes and laughed, looking away from George, who smiled back at him. “What are you looking at?” Dream giggled, his face blushing like a teenage girl. His hair fell into his face, and George raised a hand to move it, his right hand grazed Dream’s face as he moved the hair, his hand running through Dream’s hair before falling to his side again, Dream’s jaw dropping.

Abruptly, Dream raised his hand to George’s cheek and pulled him towards him, their lips finally colliding after many months of yearning. They moved in sync, their hands moving all over, not knowing what to do or where to go. Dream squeezed his eyes shut, trying to savor every moment of this. He’d waited so long for this. The many nights he’d lied in bed wanting to run across the hall to George’s room and confess everything. The many words he’d written about George on paper. All of it, it all led up to this moment.

George was taken back, but immediately engaged. Dream’s hands found George’s waist, pulling him closer to him. He kept pulling his body until they touched, Dream attempted to pull him even closer than he was, impossibly close. He giggled through their kiss, giggling at Dream’s desperate actions. George ran his fingers through Dream’s hair, and Dream’s hands rested at George’s waist.

Bliss, pure bliss. All they felt was happiness. Dream’s hands found their way up the back of George’s sweatshirt, his cold hands touching George’s bare back, making him yelp. Dream giggled, “What was that?” All he felt was happiness, not a worry in the world made its way into his mind. “Your hands are cold,” George whined through his grin, his smile going from ear to ear. “Oh yeah? You should warm them up for me,” George snickered and rolled his eyes, removing himself from Dream’s touch. Dream groaned, pulling him back to his grip. “Don’t leave me, we just started.” George raised his brows in surprise. “Just started? What does that mean?” Dream nuzzled his face into George’s shoulder, George facing away from him. “It means I’ve waited too long for that for you to just walk away from me,” George giggled, bringing music to Dream’s ears.

Dream stood behind George with his face in his neck for too long, he didn’t want this to end. “You’re so clingy, maybe I should rethink this,” George snickered, making Dream scoff and back away. “Oh come on, don’t even lie to yourself, you couldn’t have resisted me much longer, you were practically begging.” George laughed. “Don’t get cocky, all I did was move hair out of your face, I’ve been in love with you for months, I was fine.” He didn’t mean for this bit of information to slip, but Dream’s brows raised at this. “Months! Are you kidding me? This could’ve been avoided months ago?”

“I guess so,” George remarked as he stepped away and climbed into bed. Dream stood in the same spot, slowly making his way from the window to the bed, slipping next to George. He wrapped his arms around him and nuzzled his head into the crook of George’s neck again, closing his eyes. “Am I dreaming?” George looked down at the man next to him smiling. He pulled his face to his and kissed him softly. “I hope not, because I’d be too.”

-

George’s eyes fluttered open to the sight of a sleeping Dream beside him. Dream faced him, but they weren’t touching, which is ironic considering they were able to without it being weird. George lifted himself out of bed and headed for the bathroom, his limbs still getting used to being awake.

He stared at himself in the mirror. He didn’t have many insecurities, but the ones he did have impacted his life greatly. The small dark circles underneath his eyes created a tired-look, even if he wasn’t tired. His small hands made him feel like less of a man, since men were stereotypically supposed to have big, strong hands. His thin wrists made it harder for him to wear shorter-sleeved clothing, even if it was hot outside, which is why he mostly wore sweatshirts. His protruding collar bones made him feel too thin, even though they were just naturally deeper.

His hair flopped to the side, it was fluffy and out of place, creating a haggard look. He sighed, trying to decipher whether or not last night _actually_ happened. He used the restroom and left for the kitchen, Dream still sleeping soundlessly beside him. Well, not soundlessly, he was quietly snoring, but other than that you would think he was dead. He didn’t move at all in his sleep, he stayed in the same spot and rarely made any noise, it was cute, in George’s opinion.

He didn’t feel like coffee. He didn’t feel like tea. He felt like a matcha, which Karl didn’t have any of. He looked outside of the window and saw Dream’s car in the driveway, which sparked an idea. While he didn’t prefer driving, no one else was awake and for some odd reason he was craving a matcha. He didn’t know his way around Karl’s area, so he did some yelp-review-searching before he left. He found a small family-owned shop just about six miles from Karl’s house, and their specialty was matcha. He slipped on his shoes, grabbed Dream’s keys and his things, and left.

He was familiar with driving, even if he didn’t like doing it. He didn’t drive often back at home, and he didn’t drive at all in the US besides driving here, so he was still a little bit lost in some areas. But, he managed, and made it to the shop within twenty minutes. He listened to classical music on his way there, it was his guilty pleasure. He told all of his supporters, and even his friends, that he liked Travis Scott and rap-type music, which was true, but he _loved_ classical music.’ Come With Me’ by Kris Bowers was his favorite classical song, being from one of his favorite shows.

He found an odd comfort in driving, it brought him serenity and gave him time to think and enjoy being alone. He wasn’t completely alone, as he was occupied driving, but he was by himself and able to do whatever he wanted. He was able to listen to any kind of music, talk in any way he wanted, talk to himself as loudly as possible, he was free, in a sense.

It was drizzling outside slightly, the sky was grey and the air was crisp, but it was peaceful. There was hardly anyone outside, and only a few people inside of the shop. He walked in, greeted by a petite woman, presumably in her early to mid sixties. She had long, blonde hair, with a few grey hairs growing in the front. Her face was wrinkled in some places, her smile lines being prominent. She looked very sweet and welcoming.

“Good morning! How are you today?” Her voice was gentle and kind, bringing George comfort. He smiled back at her, “I’m doing well, and you?” Her face lit up, her eyes wrinkling at the sides. “Oh my, you’re English! I used to live in England myself, lovely place! I love your accent!” George smiled, his eyes now wrinkling at the ends. “Thank you! What part did you live in, if you don’t mind me asking?” Their conversation flowed perfectly, he looked down at her nametag, noticing her name was Susan. She was the owner, as the name of the shop was ‘Susan’s Cafe and Bakery’.

She smiled at him. “I lived in Brighton, a lovely place and lovely people.” She looked down to her computer, beginning George’s order. George smiled. “I love it there, I live near there as well, well, lived.” His voice lowered, unsure if he still lived there or if his permanent residency was here. She smiled, “What can I get for you?” George ordered his matcha, and added a chocolate croissant along with it, as she suggested, saying it tasted like Julien Plumart’s- George’s favorite bakery in Brighton- croissants, as she had gotten her recipe very similar. After George ordered, he continued to talk to Susan, their conversation flowed perfectly, and she reminded George of his favorite parts of living in England. The ambiance, the cafés, his favorite parts of the city, he missed it all.

He gathered his things and left, saying a heartfelt goodbye to Susan, promising he’d be back soon, as he loved hit food and drink. She was right, the croissant was nearly identical. He made his way back to the car and sat for a moment as he scrolled through his timeline on Twitter. He liked a few tweets from his friends and replied to a few messages before resuming his music and making his way back home.

By the time he arrived back at the house, Dream was awake and was upstairs with everyone else. George joined them, his food and drink in hand, and they all talked about streaming plans in Karl’s room. “What the hell, George,” Sapnap snipped, George nearly choked on his croissant. “What?” Sapnap pointed at his croissant and rolled his eyes. “You went to a coffee shop and didn’t get us anything? How rude!” He was being sarcastic, but the others nodded in agreement. George scoffed, “You were all asleep, the reason I got home after you woke up was because I spoke to the owner for quite a while, so cry about it.” They giggled.

George sipped his matcha as they talked, Dream sending him glances out of the corner of his eye constantly, but George didn’t pick up on anything. Sapnap got up to use the restroom, and Dream stood up from the group as well. “George, can you come help me with something? You taught me how to code this thing on one of our videos and I wanted to stream it today but I forgot how to do it.” George nodded and stood up, Karl and Alex resuming their previous conversation after Dream and George left.

George went into their room and walked to the desk that Dream’s PC was at and leaned down, Dream closed the door behind them. “What was it?” Before George could finish his thought, Dream had him in his grasp, he kissed him suddenly, making George yelp. Dream’s hands cupped George’s face as they kissed, his hands nearly as big as his face. They took a breath and pushed their foreheads together, breathing heavily. “What the hell was that for?” George chuckled as Dream left soft kisses along George’s neck. “You left me this morning, I was all alone,” He said between kisses. George smiled, all of the joy in the world felt like it was bottled up in his chest.

“They’re going to know something is going on, are we telling them?” George giggled as he spoke, he was barely able to think clearly with Dream kissing him. Dream pulled away, sitting on the edge of the bed and leaning back on his hands. He sighed “I don’t know, do we want to? Do you want to? I’ll do whatever you want.” His tone was gentle, it made George melt. “I don’t know, it would be kinda fun to sneak around them like teenagers. Wait for them to find out on their own,” George smiled as he imagined their faces as they finally found out, he’d have to record it. Dream kissed him again, this time softer and gentler. “Whatever you want,”

They went back upstairs, as the excuse for them being gone was fake. They made up a story as to why it ‘didn’t work’ and when they arrived back in the room, no one even noticed a thing. They smiled at each other and rejoined the conversation inconspicuously.

-

George’s best friend from home video called him later that evening, and George sat on the porch while he talked to her. Her name was Amanda, and they’d been friends since they were seven years old. They shared everything with each other, even their deepest secrets. Amanda knew things about George not even Dream and Sapnap knew. George kept her out of the public eye, he only followed her on his alt Twitter account, and he even staged an emote-entry for her so that she looked like a fan. He didn’t want anyone harassing her, and for the most part no one did. She’d had a few fans follow her on Twitter because George followed her, but nothing seemed weird, as she didn’t post anything personal on her Twitter.

They’d never been in a relationship, but they had feelings for each other at one point years ago, probably close to a decade ago. They were fifteen and sixteen, George being sixteen, and they’d gone to the winter dance together. She and him were so close it never occurred to them how perfect of a couple they’d be. They decided to not act on their feelings as to avoid a messy breakup, which would put their friendship in jeopardy.

“Look at how pretty the sky is!” She was cheerful as she spoke to George. They hadn’t hung out in a while, they’d both been busy. “It is beautiful, I miss England’s skies at night.” George sighed as he pulled his hoodie closer to him, trying to conserve heat. She turned the camera back to her. She was George’s height, which she always made fun of him for, and brunette. She had big blue eyes and a cute body. She wasn’t very girly, though, she surfed and snowboarded, and didn’t really wear skirts or dresses. She was laid back, which George liked considering how much of an overthinker he could be, and she gave the best advice. She was one of the only people George had ever cried in front of, he loved her.

“We miss you, mum’s been asking for you.” She didn’t have as deep of an accent as George did, as she traveled a lot for surfing competitions. George smiled, miss Gutierrez was one of his favorite people, she had the greatest sense of humor. “Awe, I miss her. I miss you all too, how’s John?” Amanda’s younger brother, John, had some learning disabilities that he struggled with. He was nearly nine years old and couldn’t read completely, as well as dyslexia. “He’s great! He can fully read now!” She was so happy, and George’s face lit up in happiness. “No way! I can’t believe I missed it, awe now I really miss it at home.”

He frowned slightly. He missed home more than he thought he did. The conversation with Susan earlier really opened a wound, and hearing about John’s advancement was like salt in the wound. She smiled. “How are you liking it in the states, though? You must have some reason to like it there, or you wouldn’t have gone.” George smiled at the thought of his friends, the entire reason he came. “Yeah, I like it here. It’s not as great as home, but I could see myself living here permanently. Not in North Carolina, but around here, like Florida.” His mind went to Dream, the main reason he was here.

“And how’s the _real_ reason you went?” She smirked and George rolled his eyes. “Good, though I can’t go into detail since I’m just outside.” He made mittens with his hoodie, or Dream’s hoodie, as he slightly shivered. “Go in the car, you’re freezing and I want to hear about it.” He almost said no, but decided to go inside of the house and fetch the keys. “Okay, do you want to meet everyone while I’m inside?” She nodded and George went inside, the warm air comforting him.

“Guys! I have someone you all need to meet!” George yelled as he walked into the living room where everyone was. They all looked at him as he held the phone outward, showing Amanda’s face to everyone. Sapnap’s jaw dropped. “Is that the infamous Amanda?” Sapnap began walking towards him, and Karl grinned. “A girl?! Gogy is talking to a female?” George rolled his eyes as Sapnap snatched the phone. “Hi Amanda!” Sapnap was too enthusiastic, like a little kid. Amanda laughed and waved at him, “Hello, Snapmap!” Sapnap’s enthusiasm faded as he stared blankly at the phone. Karl laughed. “She’s out the gang.” They all laughed together as she went around meeting everyone.

“Where’s Dream? I hear so much about him!” George hadn’t seen her this excited in a while, he loved seeing her excited, as she didn’t show many emotions very often. “Hey.” Dream said, his tone almost monotone. They met briefly, the energy feeling off, before Alex groaned. “I need to leave to get the food, will you come with me, Karl?” George stopped them, “I can get it! I was actually just going to borrow the car to sit in while I talk to Amanda, but I can get the food, I actually like driving,” George suggested, and Alex happily agreed. “Wow, George, you like driving? Does that mean you’ll drive us home?” Dream giggled and George rolled his eyes. “Yeah, not that much. Can I use the car? Send me the address.” George walked to the coffee table to get the keys when Dream leaned forward. “I’ll come with you.” George shook his head with a smile, “It’s ok! I should catch up with her, we haven’t spoken privately in a little bit. But tomorrow you can come with me to that café!”

“Ooh, _privately?_ George!” Sapnap teased, and George just rolled his eyes. He got the address from Alex and left to get the food. Dream didn’t say anything else to him before he left, but he didn’t really notice. Ouch.

“Ok, tell me about Dream, because it’s already eleven and I’m tired,” Amanda yawned. George told her about what’s been going on between them, as well as their rendezvous this morning and last night. She squealed in response, as she’s known about George’s crush since it started. “Awe, Georgie, I’m so happy for you! I told you he liked you back, but nobody ever believes Amanda,” She spoke of herself in third person, which made George laugh. “Georgie? Really? You called me that when you were like seven, and I called you Amandie.” They laughed together.

Amanda told him about the things he’d missed at home, as well as how she’d been hanging out with his sisters while he’s been gone, and how she’d met a boy she’d been talking to. “What’s his name?” George was curious, he can’t remember a boy she’d liked besides him since they were ten. “Well, you already know him…” She trailed off, and George’s jaw dropped, “Don’t tell me its,” She nodded. “Christian? Are you fuckin’ serious? You’ve liked him since primary school! Amanda, you cried over him so many times,” George was joking, but also concerned for his friend. She waved her hands at him. “No! It’s different, he actually asked me out earlier today.” George gasped and his jaw dropped again, “He did?! That’s amazing! Holy shit, so are you guys together?” George was too curious.

They talked for another thirty minutes until she was tired and went to sleep, leaving George alone with his thoughts. He picked up the food and tried to call Dream, but he didn’t pick up. George frowned, but left it alone.

“Finally, he’s back. I’m starving.” Sapnap said as George walked in the door, his hands freezing cold. “Jeez, someone needs to warm you up. Dream?” Sapnap teased, and George swatted his shoulder. “Oh, shut up.” He smiled as he joined the others in the kitchen. He sat next to George at the bar, who immediately picked up his freezing hands. “Jesus, did you walk there? Why are you so cold?” He pulled him into a hug, which was normal behavior for them, so it wasn’t suspicious.

“I don’t know, I guess I didn’t have the heater on in the car.” George shrugged as Dream warmed him up, the others too focused on their food to notice.

-

George and Dream left for bed after Karl’s stream ended at twelve, and Sapnap was already asleep. They climbed in bed together and George climbed into Dream’s arms. “Who’s Amanda? Why have I never heard you talk about her?” Dream didn’t sound mad, he sounded genuinely curious. “She’s my best friend from back home, I don’t know why you didn’t know who she was, I’ve told Sapnap about her.” This arose an insecure feeling in Dream’s chest, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Why would he tell Sapnap about her and not him if she wasn’t anything more than a friend? Were they dating? “Oh, yeah I’ve never heard you talk about her. She seems really nice, though.” Dream said. George nodded and laughed. “Eh, she’s alright. We’ve been friends since we were like seven years old, we’ve been through everything together. She’s super chill, she smokes a LOT of weed,” George laughed, Dream laughed with him. “Is she the reason you got so high that night on the call?” George laughed. “No, that was my sister. I’ve never done anything like that with her, I’m not into it. Clearly I don’t handle it well,”

Dream and George talked a little while longer before George fell asleep on Dream’s chest. Dream had a heavy feeling in his chest as he drifted into sleep, the thought of George not being his taunted him.

_The comfort I’ve known for so long was you. The thought of losing you, or coming in second place terrifies me. For so long, I’ve known only your laugh, only your smile, only the way you do things and the way you say things. Only the way you laugh, or the way you cry, or the way you smile on a rainy day. The way the light catches your eye and reflects perfectly, or the way you’re unapologetically passionate about the things you love. I know the way you pour your heart into everything you do. I know the way that you feel when you pour effort into something that doesn’t get poured back into you. I know the way you laugh when you’re so deeply in love with something, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the way you look at me._

**_But it's the same way you looked at her._ **


	14. a love based on friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song 'Blue' by Troye Sivan is mentioned, it's supposed to be their song in the book and it was my initial plan to make it their song since the beginning but I forgot to add it until now LMAO. ENJOY :D

“Wake up,” George whispered into Dream’s ear as he slept peacefully. All the tall man did was groan and cover his face with his pillow. George rolled his eyes and yanked at Dream’s arm, knowing he was awake. “Come on, just drive with me! You can sleep in the car!” George whined. Dream reluctantly sat up, rubbing his eyes and adjusting to being awake. He groaned and stood up. 

George pulled him close and kissed him softly, waking Dream up immediately. “Now come on, I want to talk to Susan!” George was too giddy for how early it was. It wasn’t even nine am and he was already up and ready. Dream began getting ready when he noticed George was still in his hoodie, he smiled and pulled him into a kiss. George looked up at him with confused eyes, “What was that for?” Dream smiled as he grabbed the keys to leave. “Nothing, you just look cute in _my_ hoodie.” He winked as he opened the door. 

The rest of the house was quiet, predictable considering it was eight forty-five am on a Wednesday. The others had stayed up late after Dream and George went to sleep, at least Alex and Karl did. It had been a few days since the night George spoke to Amanda, and Dream had noticed him being more glued to his phone than usual, constantly replying to messages. They left and locked the front door, the breeze slapping them as they walked outside. Dream pulled the blanket from the trunk of his car before he headed for the driver's seat, George stopping him. 

“I want to drive, sit in the passenger’s seat.” He said as he opened the door, Dream raised his brows as he walked to the other side of the car. He watched George climb in the front seat and adjust his seat and heaters as if it were second nature. “I thought you didn’t like driving,” George was texting someone as Dream said this. He rolled his eyes as he waited for George to set his phone down. He finally set his phone on his lap as he started the car, pulling his left leg up as normal before he drove. “I like it now, it’s comforting.” He smiled at Dream, who smiled back at him.

“You’re so cute.” George blushed as he backed out of the driveway. He turned the heat on but rolled down the windows slightly, which confused Dream. “Why do you have the heaters on but the windows down?” George looked at the road as he turned on music with his phone in hand, but stopped at a stop-sign when he couldn’t find the playlist he was looking for. His classical music playlist began playing before he paused it to turn on different music. “What was that?” Dream asked as he hit ‘previous’ on the CarPlay. 

George turned on their song, ‘Blue’ by Troye Sivan. It had been their song since their secret relationship started. It reminded them of the love they felt the first night they kissed, since the blue sky shone above them. They didn’t speak much of it, and they didn’t know why the song was so special, but it was _their_ song, and nothing changed that.

A song titled “A Love Based on Friendship” began playing after, it was classical. It was a beautiful piece. “Oh, nothing,” George tried to change it, but Dream stopped him. “Leave it. I like it.” George looked confused. He nodded and continued driving. The song ended and another song titled “Simon and Lady Danbury” began playing. Dream smiled halfway into the song and shifted in his seat. “You like classical music?” George didn’t know what to make of the question or how to reply. “Yes?” 

“There’s nothing wrong with it, I just had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me?” Dream stared at the cover art as he waited for George’s response. “It’s not exactly casual conversation, telling people you’d rather listen to boring classical music rather than normal music. It’s a little embarrassing.” George relaxed in his seat. He looked so peaceful as he listened to his music in peace. Dream smiled. “It’s not embarrassing, I think it’s cute.” George smiled and glanced at Dream, who was watching him drive. 

Dream pulled out his phone and secretly took a picture of George. He looked so peaceful. His leg rested at his side, which Dream now found cute rather than funny. George was smiling as he listened to the music, his fingers slowly tapping the steering wheel along with the rhythm. George rolled his head back and let out a… questionable noise, once the next song started playing. Dream raised his brows as he watched George spin the volume knob. “This song is so fucking good,” He raised his voice. 

‘Strange’ by Kris Bowers started playing. While it was a pretty song, Dream laughed at George’s reaction. “You just moaned over this? Really?” George scoffed. “It’s a beautiful song, it’s a cover of another song, just classical. It’s seriously my favorite song and there’s not even any words.” George was passionate about this song. “Oh it’s the best part,” He raised his finger and started tapping the air along with the music, moving his head and shoulders with it. Dream smiled. He loved the man sitting before him. 

The song ended and George hit the steering wheel and groaned. “Ugh! That song is so fucking good.” He shook his head as Dream laughed. “I love how much you love this kind of music.” George looked over at Dream, who was looking back at him. They smiled at each other before the stoplight turned green and George began driving again. 

They arrived at the shop and got out of the car, the cold breeze hitting them once again. George shivered as he wrapped his arms around himself. He felt Dream wrap his arms around him when he looked up and saw Dream smiling down at him. He smiled and kissed Dream’s cheek. 

They walked into the store and were greeted by Susan, who waved at them. “George and Clay! Hello boys!” She waved at the two. They’d come here together the past few days since George came the first time, and they had all three formed a friendship. “Hello, Susan!”

After a long conversation between the three, George and Dream left and headed back for the car. They sat in the same seats as before and ate their food. Dream moaned at the bagel he got, and leaned his head back. With his eyes closed, George quickly took a picture of him and laughed. Dream flicked his head up and looked at George. “I really wish I could post this,” They laughed together as they fought over George’s phone. Dream finally took his phone and went to delete the picture as George got a message, 

**Amanda <3 **  
You’re so cute

Dream looked at the message for too long before handing the phone back to George. “You got uh, you got a message.” George took the phone and looked at the message. He sighed and awkwardly thanked him for his phone back. 

And just like that, a cute moment ruined. 

The air was tense after that. They drove back in relative silence, George held Dream’s hand as he drove, but Dream’s jealousy over Amanda only thickened after that message. He wanted to ask him about it, but he didn’t. The mood was already tense enough without George’s sad music behind it, so he shuffled the ‘Today’s Top Hits’ playlist on Spotify before they left. 

“How’d you like the bagel? Was it good?” George finally spoke after ten minutes of dead silence. Dream looked at George, who looked at Dream with hopeful eyes. He sighed and smiled. “Yeah, it was super good. How’s your food?” George nodded, the awkward tension was still thick in the air. “It was good! Though I prefer the chocolate croissant over the normal one.” 

-

Days had passed relatively slowly since they went to the shop. They’d gone together a couple more times, but honestly it was easier for George to just go before everyone else woke up. He would save money and time by just buying the supplies to make matcha at home, but he loved her food and drinks and he also loved talking to Susan every morning, it began his day with friendliness and a good conversation. 

He drove in the car listening to his normal classical music as he reminisced on the previous week. It had been almost two weeks since the text incident happened with Dream. And since then, Dream had been off with George. He didn’t do as many random gestures, or cuddle him before he went to sleep, or sent him dumb little texts while he was with the others. He did at first, but within the past couple of days, he slowed down until yesterday when it completely stopped. George didn’t know why. 

He turned off the car before going into the shop rather down and gloomy. He walked in and noticed there wasn’t anyone else in the shop. He came later than usual, as he stopped at the store before arriving. Susan was sitting behind the counter and she stood up when George walked in. “Good morning, George! No Clay today?” As always, her voice was gentle and kind. George faked a half-smile while he shook his head. “No, not today.” The sadness in his voice was apparent because Susan typed in his order and began making it immediately. “How much is it?” George questioned as he pulled out his wallet. “Nothing, you need someone to talk to. It’s on the house,” George wanted to insist, but she was right and he knew she wouldn’t let him pay. He waited at the counter and Susan brought him his items at a table, motioning for him to sit. He sat down and she began to talk. 

“What’s going on?” She was like a mother figure. Though he’d only known her for a couple of weeks, they’d grown so close to the point where he knew her kids and their jobs and she knew more about his life than some of his close friends. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “It’s Clay. We’re having issues.” He sipped his drink as they talked. 

The way she spoke to him was so comforting. She spoke in a way that he felt supported in what he did but she also gave him advice that he could actually use. He felt safe talking to her. She was a mother figure to him while he was in the US. He talked to his mother every day while he was at home but wasn’t able to when he was with Dream and Sapnap. A tear formed in his eye when he remembered they’d be leaving in three days back to Florida. 

“I think that whatever is going on in here,” She pointed to George’s chest where his heart was. “Needs to be spoken out here. I know you care about this girl, but even the conscious fact that you had feelings for her at some point in your life means it’s not completely foreign territory for you two to be together.” He sighed. “But it feels impossible now. I couldn’t see myself being in a relationship with her.” Susan nodded. “Yes, but you’re not in a relationship with Clay either. Did you think about that? You didn’t introduce me to him as your boyfriend, he was just Clay.” George stopped. 

She was right. 

“Look, honey, I understand why you care about her, she’s your best friend and I know you have known her your whole life, and that you love her. But, the uncertainty between you and Clay right now is hurting you, and most definitely hurting him, which is hurting you guys. If you leave to go back with him in three days and you guys are still like this then you, being you, will feel like you need to flee back home to your safe space. We all do it, we go back to where we’re comfortable. Whether that’s in people or places, we all do it, it’s human nature.” 

“And I’m not saying that you need to stop talking to her, not at all, but right now I think that you’re afraid of making things official with Clay because you’re saying goodbye to the life you knew. Being open about a relationship with him is going to impact your life in all aspects. Not to mention you have millions of fans that will react to this. It seems like you’re avoiding this unknown with Clay because you’re comfortable with Amanda.” George was taken back. She was right. “So what do I do? I’m so lost, I hate feeling like this.” His drink was gone and his croissant was crumbs. He sat at the table talking to Susan for an hour before a customer came in and she needed to leave for a moment. She needed to wrap their conversation up, though, as her shift was almost over. “George, you do what you feel you need to do. But, I say that you need to talk to both Clay and Amanda and set your boundaries. And then you need to be open with your friends and family. The secrecy isn’t good for you, from what I can see. But, I’m some random coffee shop owner, so you do you, George.” She smiled before hugging him and tending to her customers. 

They said their goodbyes and George left the store. He didn’t feel better, he felt worse. Now he needed to make the decision of who he wanted to talk to first. He knew Amanda wouldn’t care, but he cared about her so deeply the thought of her caring about this situation hurt him to his core. And he knew Dream cared. The thought of losing Dream made him tear up. 

**Incoming Call: Dream**

He wiped away the tears as he answered. “Hello?” Dream sighed into the phone. “Where are you?” George started the car, his phone connected to the car’s bluetooth. “Susan’s. I’m on my way back now, why?” For a moment, everything felt normal. “I need _my_ car back.” George was taken back. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll be home as soon as I can.” He said as he looked at the picture he had stored for Dream’s contact. “Mmk, bye then.” And he hung up. 

Tears fell down his face as he silently cried into his sweatshirt sleeves. The conversation with Susan, Dream’s tone, Dream’s dismissal of him the past few days, him feeling distant from the others, the news of Amanda’s health being in danger recently, his mom missing him, him missing his cat, it all bottled up inside of him weeks ago and kept building up until now when it all inevitably flooded out of him. 

He cried, hard. He felt tears fall onto his sweatshirt as he drove. The only person he wanted to talk to was Dream, but he couldn’t. The absolute last thing he wanted to do was walk into the house full of his best friends and people he loved most in the world and paint a fake smile onto his face while he pretended he was fine. That was the absolute last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to go park somewhere and cry until there were no tears left, and then go home hours from now and sleep the rest of the day away. But Dream needed his car, the car he made so abundantly clear was his and not George’s. 

His face was red and covered in dried tears and his eyes were puffy, but he pulled into the driveway and got out of the car, hoping and praying that everyone was upstairs. He closed and locked the car and walked in the house, unfortunately being greeted by all four of them in the living room. 

“Gogy!” Sapnap yelled as he got up to hug him, slowing down once he looked at George’s face. “Are you ok?” He whispered as he stood in front of him. George nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I- I think I’m gonna shower and go to sleep, I have a headache.” He said quickly before running into the room and closing the door. He leaned against the door, nearly breaking down in tears again. This trip hadn’t been what he expected. The entirety of the trip contained a roller coaster of emotions from his and Dream’s situation. 

_Not here, in the shower when you have the water and music to drown out your pathetic cries._

He inhaled and nodded to himself as he headed for the dresser. He pulled out any pair of sweats he could find and grabbed a new sweatshirt, considering the one he was wearing was nearly drenched in tears. He headed for the shower as he began to break down, tears falling out of his eyes too fast for him to catch. 

As soon as the shower was on and the door was closed, he began to cry again. He hadn’t remembered crying this much since he was a kid. He wasn’t a very emotional person. 

“George?” Dream spoke from outside of the door, and George wiped his tears before replying through the barrier. “Y-Yeah?” He hoped for a moment that Dream would ask him what was wrong, and that he’d have Dream’s comfort to break down into. That he’d have the comfort of knowing he cared about him, and that he would get through this. “I need the keys,” George scrunched his face, accidentally gasping for air between his cries, unfortunately it was very audible. 

“YYeah, they’re in my bag. S-Sorry.” He could barely speak. He just wanted Dream to ask him what was wrong. He wanted him to care. George wanted to know that all of this pain that was happening was for a reason, it was the storm before the rainbow, the darkness before the light, he wanted to know that there was a reason for this pain he felt, and the tears he cried. 

He didn’t reply. George heard the keys ring and the door shut, and he was alone. He sobbed into his knees. He could barely breathe. Had all of this hurt been for nothing? Had all of this been a sudden feeling that he and Dream shared once and it all went away? It had been days since they even hugged each other, let alone since they showed romantic gestures. 

-

George lied in bed that night on the phone with Amanda. He had spoken to her about how he’d been feeling about her and Dream, and like he predicted, she only wanted him to be happy and didn’t care if they needed to lessen up on their chats so that he and Dream could talk more. She was an amazing person, and very chill and easy-going, he knew she wouldn’t care. 

“Amanda?” George questioned as he watched his friend rub her temples and groan in pain. “Are you ok?” She sighed and looked back to George, who was sleepy in bed. “I’m fine, just been really nauseous lately.” He propped himself on his pillow and looked at her, she didn’t look well. Her eyes were sunken in, she had dark circles underneath her eyes, her skin was paler and her mouth and nose were red. Her mannerisms had been off as well, she’d been speaking less, eating less, she’d been less enthusiastic than she normally is, she’d been off during their conversations. She was always in bed. 

“What’s going on with you? I’m concerned.” He was genuinely concerned for her, and she sighed. “I don’t know, I’ve been dizzy and weak for a few weeks now. It’s hard to get out of bed sometimes. I’m not depressed, we had me tested, I’m just off.” George sighed. She looked like a completely different person. “Have you spoken to a doctor?” 

“No, because there’s not really anything to say. I look like hell, that’s for sure, but there’s no real symptoms. I get dizzy and I’m not hungry, that’s it. I’ve been less energetic, but there’s no real signs so I can’t do anything.” George sighed. “If there’s something seriously wrong, you need to go. I can’t have you dying on me, Manda,” She laughed, even her laugh was different. “Don’t worry, Georgie, I’m not. If there’s something wrong, I’ll go.” George smiled and yawned, it was almost ten pm and Dream wasn’t back from wherever he was. 

“Good night, Georgie, I love you.” She was so sincere, such a pure heart, he couldn’t imagine life without her. He smiled and waved into the phone. “Good night, Mandie, I love you too,” She hung up the phone and he sighed. He considered texting her mother, but remembered that they were in their mid-twenties and could handle themselves. 

This he would later come to regret. 

Dream walked into their room quietly, and even though the lights were off and the only light in the room was that of the moonlight seeping in through the blinds, he could see Dream’s bloodshot eyes and puffy face. “Dream,” He was gentle. Dream took his shoes off and climbed in bed, the only sound emitting from him was the sounds of his silent cries. 

George pulled him into the same position they were in the night of Dream’s anxiety attack. Dream cried into George’s arms once again as they sat in silence. He squeezed George. He gasped for air between his sobs, the sounds echoing across the room. 

“It happened again.” 

George’s heart skipped a beat as he rubbed Dream’s arm with his thumb. “What happened?” Dream sighed and a few more tears flowed out of his eyes. “I had another anxiety attack, but I was alone.” George sighed loudly. “Baby,” 

Dream pulled himself up and held George, him now being held. “This time, all I could think about was you. All I could think of was how much I wished you were there. And how much I hated myself for leaving you in the bathroom like that. I knew you were crying and I still left you. And for that, George, I’m so fucking sorry. I’m the absolute worst boyfriend in the entire world.” He was still crying, but George had no more tears left to cry. 

“I’m sorry, Clay. I’m sorry for everything that’s happened in the past few days. I’m sorry for how distant I’ve been, that’s why I was gone all morning. I was talking to Susan about what to do. She noticed you hadn’t been coming in with me and she was concerned. I’m so fucking sorry.” George still wasn’t crying, but he might as well have been. 

“What _is_ going on, George? What is wrong with us?” He sounded so desperate and so genuinely lost. George sighed and pulled himself up to face Dream. 

“I’m afraid. Not of this, not of us, but I’m afraid of not being comfortable. I love you, Dream, I love you so fucking much that the thought of being open with the people around us and that possibly interfering with us is so painful to think about I decided to ignore it. I love Amanda, but as a friend and purely platonic. But, I keep defaulting to her because she’s safe. I’ve been afraid of the unknown. I love you, and I want to love you openly so much, but I’m scared. I’m so scared of losing you that I haven’t been loving you.” 

“And within that, I’ve been neglecting you, I’ve been neglecting us. I know that you’ve been uncomfortable with Amanda, I knew that and I didn’t do anything about it. That day with the coffee shop was one of the happiest I’ve ever been. Being out in the open with you was so amazing, I loved sharing us with the world. I loved doing cheesy things like getting coffee at a small coffee shop and enjoying each other’s presence. I loved listening to my dumb classical music. I loved driving and feeling your presence next to me. I loved seeing you wrapped up all cute and cozy in that blanket. I loved all of it. And then instead of explaining the text you saw, explaining the conversation that went with the text, I decided to avoid the unknown. Because that was easier than admitting that I’m afraid.” 

“Clay, I love you, and I want to tell all of them how I feel. I want all of our friends and all of our supporters to know us. But, I’m afraid of losing you. Because once we do that, there’s no going back. If we announce this and, God forbid, it doesn’t work out then it's over. Our friendship, our memories, our late night phone calls, our tv show we’re watching, it’s over.” George began crying now, he didn’t know he could. 

Dream hugged him tightly. “I love you, George. None of that is happening, I love you too fucking much for any of that to happen, George. We’ll get through this together. You’re my blue, I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one more chapter after this one :)


	15. love is a choice

The inevitable end to the trip had come, and all five of the guys stood outside of Karl’s house as they waited for Alex’s Uber to arrive to take him to the airport. The moment was bittersweet, as they all froze in the cold air & laughed at another one of Karl’s unironically funny jokes, they wished it wouldn’t end. Though they loved being together, though, they knew they needed to go back to normal life. They hadn’t been streaming or producing content as often as they had before since they were spending time with each other. The air was so cold they could see each other’s breaths in the air, but they didn’t want to go back inside the house. 

Just as Sapnap finished his obnoxious and anticlimactic story, a black Honda pulled in front of the house, meaning it was time for them to part ways. They looked to each other with sadness in their eyes, as they knew that they’d all be sleeping in their beds tonight. They exchanged hugs and kind words, but being mindful of the Uber waiting for Alex. 

“Good bye my fiancé! I’ll miss you.” Karl exclaimed as he hugged Alex, who looked as if he were about to cry. The others said goodbye as they watched him walk towards the car. The four watched the black car drive into the distance, eventually leaving their field of vision, and they looked to each other before they crashed into a four-way hug. Karl was crying, and the others laughed. 

Little words were spoken at this time, but they all knew what the silence meant: their time had come. They shared goodbye’s for a final time before a sleepy Sapnap, an eager Dream, and a conflicted George walked to the car. Dream drove first, with George next to him in the passenger’s seat and Sapnap in the backseat laying down, as he’d stayed up all night with Karl and Alex. They waved one final goodbye to Karl before pulling out of the driveway. 

“Can we go to Susan’s? I want a matcha and I want to say goodbye, I’ve really loved seeing her while I’ve been here.” George pleaded, and Dream grinned at him. “Of course, I already planned on it,” Dream’s tone was endearing… suspiciously endearing. Sapnap looked up from his position at the two before him, observing their motions. He furrowed his brows as he watched them make ‘the eyes’ at each other, and all of the dots connected in Sapnap’s head. 

“No fucking way!” He sat up from his seat immediately, wrapping his arms around the headrest of Dream’s seat. The two looked back at him confused. “What?” George asked. Sapnap laughed and shook his head. “You guys are fucking!” Dream and George immediately laughed and blushed, though he had the right idea he didn’t execute it very well. “What?” Dream asked through his laughter. 

“Am I wrong?” Sapnap was overly confident, and their anticlimactic responses were concerning. George and Dream looked at each other before erupting in laughter, Sapnap was even more confused than before. “Yes, you are.” Dream remarked, making George cackle in laughter. Sapnap furrowed his brows as he tilted his head to the left. “But, you guys are all gooey and romantic, are you guys not together?” The genuine confusion in his voice made the two in the front giggle. “Well, we are, but we’re not fucking, you’re weird.” Dream replied, his eyes glued to the road as he pulled onto the street that Susan’s Café was on. Sapnap’s eyes widened and he cheered, punching the ceiling with his fist. “WOOOO! How long have you guys been together? And wait, why am I just now finding out about this? What the fuck is going on?” His voice changed from excited to confusion as his sentence went on, and Dream pulled into a parking space as George chuckled. “We’ll explain once we get our food, I’m too tired to explain this without caffeine.” 

The three made their way into the shop and were greeted by Susan and her daughter, Macy. “You came to say goodbye!” The excitement in Susan’s voice brought joy to George’s ears, knowing someone cared for him enough to be this excited over a small gesture like this meant a lot to him. “Of course we did! Plus, you haven’t met Nick yet,” Dream said as he motioned to Sapnap, who was standing behind them very confused. Susan’s face beamed with happiness as she walked to Sapnap to introduce herself. 

“Oh, hello! I’m Susan! And this is my daughter, Macy! How come you’ve never been with the boys before?” Sapnap’s face beamed red, but not because of Susan’s question, because of the stunning girl’s eyes that were planted on him. Macy smiled and waved at him as they chatted, and Sapnap stumbled over his words. After ordering, Sapnap sat at a table with Dream and George as they waited for their items, Macy gave a sweet smile to Sapnap every few minutes, making him even more flustered. “Dude,” Sapnap whispered. 

“Why didn’t you tell me Macy was a thing, I would’ve come in a heartbeat.” Dream and George laughed. “Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but George and I aren’t exactly into her type.” Dream whispered, making George choke on air. Dream wheezed as Sapnap rolled his eyes. 

_Why did I open this can of worms before I spend eight hours in the car with them?_

The drive was bearable, the occasional dirty joke or suggestive comment made Sapnap squirm, but for the most part the drive was alright. When George was on aux, Dream constantly begged him to play this song Sapnap wasn’t aware of, something about strange. And surprisingly, George was the best driver of the three of them. Perhaps it was because he spent hours driving around aimlessly everyday while they were at Karl’s, or because he was the newest so he paid the most attention, but the other two weren’t complaining. 

“When are you two telling Q and Karl? And the fans?” The car fell silent, the only noise being the quiet tune of the radio. Dream and George sighed. “We want to wait it out before we tell anyone else, it’s only been like two weeks so it’s still pretty new-” 

“TWO WEEKS? You guys have been sneaking around for two weeks? What even happened? If I even want to know,” Sapnap was cautious of the answer, but he trusted if it was anything _too_ personal that they wouldn’t tell him. George and Dream chuckled. “Uhm, you know the day you were out with Karl and Q filming all day? And you came home soaking wet?” George questioned, slightly distracted from driving. “Yeah,” 

“That day was…” George trailed off. “A breaking point.” Dream chimed in as he switched songs. He put on a classical song, which wasn’t Sapnap’s preferred music, but George nearly moaned when the first note of the song played. Sapnap’s eyes widened. “What the fuck?” Dream laughed, “Oh, this song is so fucking good.” 

_Strange by Kris Bowers._

“Anyway, I almost kissed him but you guys ruined it, if you’d waited like five more minutes we would’ve found out sooner.” Dream chimed in, resulting in a glare from George. “Did not! I’m the one who asked you about it!” They continued fighting over who almost kissed who, and Sapnap was already sick of the couple’s banter. “What the fuck ever, so it was that night?” Sapnap snapped. 

“Yeah, that whole day actually.” George and Sapnap spoke back and forth about the events leading up to that day, and the events that happened behind everyone else’s backs. Dream stared out the window at the empty highway. He reminisced on that day, and how that day felt like a fever dream. None of it felt real, not until that night when he and George finally kissed. It all felt surreal. Even until now, Dream had no clue how he’d managed to know what would happen that day. 

The drive was over a few hours after that, and they arrived at the house around the same time as Dream’s mother, Melissa, to return Patches and Cat back to their owners. George’s heart burst when he laid eyes on Cat, she looked bigger. It had been nearly a month since he’d seen her, and he missed her every moment of it. 

“Oh baby, I missed you so much!” George exclaimed after they’d gotten settled back into the house after Melissa had left. Dream stood behind him. “I was with you, Georgie.” Dream said, which only George heard since Sapnap was upstairs. George grinned. “You’re so dumb.” George put down Cat, but she still nuzzled his leg, wanting more attention. Dream leaned down to pick her up, holding her close to him. “Awe, Cat, aren’t I a better owner? I’ll take much better care of you than he will,” Dream teased, making George scoff. 

He took back Cat, and held her close to him. “Shut up!” George exclaimed. Cat wiggled out of his arms, the tension being too much for even her to handle, and ran away. Dream raised his brows, “Don’t tell me to shut up.” George grinned and lowered his voice, “Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it?” Their heart beats quickened as they held eye contact, the tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. 

Suddenly, Dream was chasing George around the house, Patches and Cat sat on the couch in terror as they watched their grown owners chase each other like children. Giggles and laughter filled the house, along with George’s childish screams. “Come here, George!” Dream said as he followed George into Dream’s bedroom. He shut the door behind him, trapping George in there with him. George backed slowly into the bed, being stopped by the frame of the bed hitting his leg. 

“Shit,” George said as he looked down at his ankle, the corner of the bed sending a piercing pain up his leg. He felt Dream’s fingertips under his chin, lifting his face to meet Dream’s eyesight. “I got you.” Dream whispered, making George even more erratic than before. George smiled, “Mmm, looks like you did,” Dream grinned slightly. “What are you gonna do with me?” 

Dream pulled George’s face to his, crashing their lips together in a kiss. Dream slid his hands down George’s body, feeling George squirm underneath his touch. He felt George’s hands run through his hair, sending shivers down his spine. George sat himself on the edge of the bed, letting Dream slowly climb on top of him, them nearing the top of the bed together, their bodies still connected. 

The room was hot, and they were breathless. Their bodies moved perfectly in sync, they felt as if there weren’t a care in the world, not a single thing holding them back. Dream hovered above George, scared to let himself go any further. He pulled away, leaving George groaning. 

“We should stop,” Dream said breathlessly, slowly sitting up above George. He moved his hair out of his face, some of it sticking to his forehead from sweat. “Why?” George questioned, his hair messed up and covering half of his face as well. “Because… I, I can’t stop myself,” George looked confused, “Why should you?” Dream grinned, “George…” George pulled Dream back to him by the collar of his sweatshirt, their lips reconnecting before George tugged at the bottom of Dream’s shirt, butterflies erupting in both of their stomachs.

-

“We had beast burger like every night we were there!” George whined as he put on a sweatshirt, Dream’s sweatshirt. Water dripped from his hair down his back after he showered, after _they_ showered. 

“Okay then what do we want?” Sapnap groaned as he watched Dream play with Patches in the living room. “Dream?” Dream was smiling from ear to ear when he looked at Sapnap, his face gleamed with happiness. “I’m fine with whatever! Sushi could be good?” He was abnormally giddy, it confused Sapnap. George was happier than normal as well, 

_Gross._

He turned his face up at the thought before he brushed it aside, not needing to know THAT much about their love life. “I’m fine with sushi!” George exclaimed as he sat on the couch, grabbing the controller and turning on the TV. 

They ordered their food for pickup and Sapnap offered to go and pick it up once it was ready, leaving George and Dream alone again. Sapnap had been gone for a couple of minutes before George curled into Dream’s arms on the couch as they watched Jane the Virgin.

Sapnap soon arrived back home and they sat on the couch as they ate their food. Sapnap admired his friends and their inevitable reunion, as he knew they were in love before they did. 

-

They all three sat together in one of their discord calls with Alex and Karl, as well as Bad. The six of them talked for hours, discussing future plans for the SMP, the future of their careers in general, and they filled in Bad on their trip. Bad congratulated them, asking about Susan and the dates of the videos they filmed together. The six of them shared laughs and even played a few games of Jackbox with just them, they enjoyed making jokes that were too inappropriate or personal to share on stream.

They started with Quiplash, as they always do, and they bantered back and forth throughout their games. Punz and Ant joined their game as well, making the group eight now instead of six. They were on the second round of Quiplash when a prompt came up neither Dream or George had answered.

**What’s one thing you never want to hear, under ANY circumstances?**

_Dance Monkey_ **or,** _Dream and George fucking downstairs_

Dream and George choked at the same time, and were able to hear Sapnap’s laughter from downstairs. “What the fuck?” Punz asked while laughing. To all of them, it just looked like normal DNF jokes, and Dream and George weren’t able to tell if Sapnap had heard them or if it were a sad coincidence. Alex laughed loudly, as well as Karl, and Bad just yelled “Language!” As the others laughed. “Oh my God,” Dream and George replied at the same time. 

As predicted, George and Dream chose ‘Dance Monkey’, while Sapnap, Punz, Ant and Alex chose ‘Dream and George fucking downstairs’. George and Dream both sighed from relief when they noticed it was Karl and Bad who answered, and not some sick coincidence. 

“Oh, that's funny.” Sapnap said, making George yelp. “Why?” Ant asked. “Oh, no reason.” Dream and George knew exactly what he meant, but the others (hopefully) didn’t. They moved on and continued to play until one am, when George was too tired to stay awake. They called it a night, Sapnap stayed on a call with Punz while he streamed Valorant on his alt Twitch account. 

George turned off his PC and laid down, his eyes fluttering shut more and more every moment. He’d nearly gone to sleep when he heard his phone buzz, and checked to see who it was.

**Dream <3**  
come sleep with me, i miss you

George smiled, finding enough energy stored in his body to walk over to Dream’s room, being greeted by the sight of a shirtless Dream laying down under his covers. He was on the right side of the bed, just as they’d slept together at Karl’s. 

Almost immediately, Dream felt George snoring into his chest as they lied together. Dream smiled down at George, feeling the familiar warmth rising in his chest as he watched George sleep peacefully. He pulled his phone from the night stand and took a picture, without his face in it in case he ever wanted to post it, and saved it. George looked so peaceful, with his mouth slightly opened as the snores poured out. Dream kissed the top of George’s head before he drifted off to sleep, the warmth of his partner comforting him as he slept.

-

Dream woke up alone, with the door to his bedroom closed and the sound of commotion outside. He got up, confused as to where the man he fell asleep with was, and covered his naked torso before opening his door. 

He was met with the sight of a panicking George sitting at the bar staring aimlessly at his phone. Tears stained his face and soaked the ends of his sleeves, his eyes were puffy and pink. Dream rushed to him and wrapped his arms around George’s small frame. “What’s going on? What happened?” George was silent. 

“George? What’s wrong, are you hurt?” The concern in his voice was high as he watched George stare at nothing while trying to hold back tears. As Dream pulled him closer, he felt George’s tense body easy as tears poured onto his sweater. He didn’t care about the tears, he only cared about why George was so broken. He was more broken than he’d ever seen him before. 

His face was blank and pale, the only color being from his pink stained cheeks and swollen eyes. He cried into Dream’s chest, gasping for air every couple of minutes. He squeezed Dream’s sweatshirt in his hands as he wrapped his arms around him, holding Dream as close to him as he could. 

“Baby,” Dream pulled George’s face up, revealing the pure hurt and terror painted across his face. “What happened?” George took a deep breath, he closed his eyes and collected himself, still unable to speak without crying. 

“It- It’s Amanda. S-She collapsed this morning and- and hasn’t woken up. She’s in the hospital, she’s been there for seven hours and they don’t know what’s wrong with her. She’s unresponsive.” He broke down into Dream again, burying his face into Dream’s arm. Dream put his hand on the back of George’s neck, trying to comfort him the best he could. He didn’t know what to say. 

They stood in silence for the next few hours, staring aimlessly at George’s phone, waiting for it to ring. Dream made him and Sapnap breakfast in complete silence as he waited for George to show any emotion besides sadness. After nearly two hours of complete silence, he spoke. 

“She’s been unhealthy for a few weeks. She’s eating less, less energetic, she always seems out of it, she- she um, she’s been dizzy and unstable for a couple weeks now. She told me all of this, even her mother messaged me about her health, and when I asked her about it she said there wasn’t anything wrong and not to worry.” His eyes welled up with tears again as he bit the inside of his cheek to refrain from crying. 

“I ignored the signs. She’s been taking care of the people around her non-stop, she hasn’t been taking care of herself. I ignored it.” By the time George had finished speaking, Sapnap and Dream were standing next to him hugging him, trying to keep him as hopeful as possible.

The truth is, Dream and Sapnap knew little to nothing about her. They knew she was his lifelong best friend, she was his rock, she had been his non-biological sister since they were born. They knew she was a strong and intelligent person, which is what George loved about her, but they didn’t know her. They didn’t know if she’d get through this, and the last thing that they wanted to do was fill his head with cliché bullshit and false hope. They were lost. 

“George,” Sapnap spoke, “I don’t know her, at least not well, but what I Do know, is that she is a strong, smart, intelligent and amazing person who isn’t going to give up. She’s just like you. She might have been neglecting herself, but this isn’t your fault, George. You guys aren’t even in the same time zone, you can’t, and I mean CANNOT blame yourself for this. This isn’t your fault, if anything, you’re the reason she and her mom recognized it soon enough. She’s getting the help she needs and she’s going to fight, she’ll pull through.” George forced a half smile at Sapnap, but didn’t reply. 

Within the hour, George’s phone was buzzing. 

**Incoming Call: Amanda <3 **

George panicked, hoping to God he didn’t see her mother’s face telling him she’d died, that was the absolute last thing he needed. He answered, and was met with the soothing voice of Amanda on the other side. 

“Hello?” 

“Hey, Georgie.” Tears fell from his eyes as he sunk into the couch, Dream and Sapnap watching him as he talked. “I told you not to worry about me, you idiot. I just passed out from dehydration.” George heard her mother arguing with her in the background, and the familiar family banter in his ear made him smile from ear to ear. 

“What happened?” 

“I forgot to eat for a couple of days, my ADHD meds make me lose my appetite, and with the past few days and work, I forgot to drink enough water. There’s apparently some other fuckin’ crazy things too, but I’ll have to tell you that when I’m home because they just pumped me full of drugs and I’m getting a wee bit queezy.” She sounded high, a familiar sound to George, but it made him happier than he ever imagined.

“I love you Georgie, I’ll call you when I’m home.” Her words were slurred, but he didn’t care. “I love you Amandie, I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up the phone and he looked at Dream and Sapnap, who were eagerly watching him. He smiled and shrugged, 

“Dehydration and loss of appetite from her meds, she’s fine.” They embraced him in a massive hug, bringing him all of the comfort and happiness in the world. Dream kissed his forehead and hugged him after their initial hug, and George felt at peace, finally. 

-

It had been a week since Amanda had collapsed, which sent George into a whirlwind of emotions. The rest of the day was filled with banter and nonsense, and George had his friends to keep him sane until Amanda called him later that night. 

But most of all, he had Dream. Dream brought him more safety and comfort than he ever knew he could endure. 

They decided to make this living situation permanent, and began looking for a bigger house, with bigger rooms and more land. They wanted to invite more of their friends to live with them in the future, but for now they were happy with just them three: The Dream Team. 

Dream and George lied in Dream’s bed as they watched TV on Dream’s TV, with George in Dream’s arms as he lied on his chest, listening to his heartbeat and feeling the rise and fall of his chest with every breath. They were on the final episode of Jane the Virgin, the show they’d started before they were dating. In some ways, their lives progressed with the show. With all of the ups and the downs, the emotions and the doubts, they grew with the show. The show was a constant for them, something they knew would be there if they ever needed a guiding star to where they started. 

_“So I never asked you, what happens at the end of your book?”_

_“They make it into a telenovela.”_

_“Well who’d wanna watch that?”_

The infamous white screen and typewriting showed, only this time the credits wrote “The End” instead of “To Be Continued…”, meaning the show had ended. 

The end credits rolled and Dream looked down at George, who looked up at him and smiled. George’s eyes studied Dream’s face as they lied together listening to the end credit song that played. George pulled himself up to kiss Dream, and they kissed softly before pulling apart and staring into each other’s eyes. Cat and Patches sat together at the end of the bed, curled up sleeping next to each other. George smiled at the man before him, “Hi, Dream.” 

_”Hey there, George.”_

**_The End._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! Another book: finished. I loved writing this fic, it was 5 chapters longer than my last! I hope you all enjoyed it. Keep a lookout for more work from me in the future, I genuinely love writing as a hobby and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did.
> 
> Fun Fact: I was actually going to end the book with Amanda getting extremely sick and George leaving to tend to her while he and Dream hadn't completely talked about where they stood, and George inevitably having to choose between the two. I didn't do that for a couple of reasons, tho. 1, I didn't want Amanda to be seen as 'competition' or a bad guy, because she really isn't. She's supposed to be a symbol of George's life back in England, and as just his genuine best friend. 2, that would've required me to write a sequel, which I just have no clue what I would've done for that lol, I feel like the story ends well here. and 3, it would've created too much drama and even if i added that but resolved it before the book ended, it would've created a lot of tension between the two, where I just wanted the story to be a fluffy romance between these 2 characters :)


End file.
